OUR EDUCATIONAL METHODS AND FORESTRY PROGRESS. 37 



OUR EDUCATIONAL METHODS AND FORESTRY PROGRESS. 



CHARLES W. GARFIELD. 



It would be considered rather poor practice, in heating a kettle of 

 water, to applj' the fire above rather than below the receptacle. One under- 

 taking a plan of this kind would simple' put himself in the position of 

 furnishing laughing stock for the community, and still, there are occasions 

 when this method must be adopted, because of adverse conditions. For 

 instance, I have been watching men thaw out waterpipes during this past 

 winter, by building fires on the surface and gradually working down 

 through the earth by this slow method. Criticism may be made u])on 

 my analogy , and still, I think there is a strong element of application 

 to our methods of education. We have been expending our energies 

 in working from the top downward. Ours is a democratic country, 

 and when we can understand thoroughly that the will of the people is 

 supreme and that the average man is a commandant, our system of 

 education must be looked at somewhat differently from a plan adopted 

 under a monarchy or aristocracy. If we wish to accomplish far-reaching 

 results in any progressive matter that affects the people, we must not 

 begin at the university, but with the common school, and the theory 

 of our education with the child must be, that in him we are building for 

 the future, and it is right for us to center our energies in him. He is 

 the most important product of our age or of any age. 



In the prosecution of the forestry movement, which I cannot help 

 but feel is one of the great movements in our land, we may have never 

 so well equipped a Bureau of Forestry in connection with the general 

 government; we may have the most satisfactory departments in our uni- 

 versities for the development of forestry, but the movement will be one of 

 hesitancy and very unsatisfactory in its results until we can reach that 

 element in the community which will have the influence and the votes in 

 the adoption of methods and in the control of activities. The child must 

 be imbued with the idea that the root of a tree is at least of equal impor- 

 tance to a Greek root; that the furnishing of raw material for industries 

 is of as great moment as is method in expressing the most delightful 

 sentiments concerning the evolution of the race ; that the influence of the 

 removal of our forest cover upon industries and upon manhood is of 

 as great import as any information that can be given with regard 

 to the revolution of the planets or the composition of the sun. 

 Having this thought in my mind, and the desire that the 

 great movement for reforestation shall take a strong hold upon the mass 

 of the people, I am convinced that our work must be centered in our 

 primary system of education. Let me illustrate what I mean : In my 

 own township, when I was a boy, a stream known as Plaster Creek, 

 traversing in an irregular way our township from corner to corner, had 

 a very even flow throughout the year. We never had any excessive 

 flood that was dangerous to bridges, and the water itself was seldom, 



