A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



or THK 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



LIB' 

 QA 



Vol. XI. No. 261, 



BARBADOS. APRIL 27, 1912. 



Pbioi Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Paob. 



Page. 



Education in Rural Schools. 



ilOR some time past, the need has been felt in 

 'the West Indies tor improvement in the edu- 

 )cational methods employed, in rural schools 

 particularly. The same circumstance has existed 

 in Great Britain, where a stage in progress has been 

 marked recently by the issue of a Memorandum on the 

 Princijjles and Methods of Rural Education, by the 



Board of Education, England. In England, the dis- 

 tinctions between the circumstances surrounding 

 schools in town and those in the country are much 

 greater than the differences which obtain in the West 

 Indies, where almost all commercial effort is directly 

 connected with agriculture. The same general princi- 

 ples apply nevertheless in both cases, and actually in 

 a broader degree in the West Indies; and it will be 

 well to see in what way several of the matters in the 

 Memorandum mentioned may be made useful in regard 

 to West Indian conditions. 



Dealing first with rural elementary schools, there 

 has been in late years, in England, a desire to make 

 the teaching more practical in nature, and although 

 this has been effected from small beginnings, many of 

 the schools employ in large measure the great wealth 

 of material supplied by the conditions surrounding 

 them. In such cases the teacher is continuing to receive 

 education, in the best sense, at the same time as the 

 pupil, and the chief requisites for his success are a real 

 interest in the affairs in which he finds himself placed, 

 and willingness and courage to undertake experiments 

 and to benefit by what others may have to teach him. 



It has been pointed out already in this journal 

 that the chief effort in such matters should be to make 

 the teaching possess an intimate connexion with the 

 life of the child and with the daily circumstances with 

 which he comes into contact. The adoption of this 

 method will supply abundant material for dealing with 

 nearly all the subjects that are commonly found in the 

 curriculum of an elementary school. Further, a lively 

 interest will be given to these subjects, in that the 

 pupil will be made to see in what way they are of use 



