274 BOARD OF AGKICULTUKE. 



college, then the high school. We seem to have been going down from the 

 top to the bottom all these years, instead of beginning at the bottom and 

 going up, or forward. 



When we give an occasional thought to the education of the hand, it 

 seems to me that ought to be combined with an academic training. I thinli 

 I might illustrate that in a very homely way by referring to the study of 

 physiology. I believe every child that goes through our ordinary schools 

 has some knowledge of, some instructions in physiology. One of the facts, 

 items or bits of knowledge that comes to that child is that the skin is an 

 organ of excretion. He then immediately knows that much about physi- 

 ology. That is good so far as it goes. But suppose when the child was 

 taught that fact of physiology, there was a teacher who taught that fact 

 in its relation to the home and housekeeping, what would be the result of 

 that one bit of information? What effect would it have upon the mind of 

 the child? What would it determine for us? It would first determine the 

 necessity of a bath. A child getting that kind of information gets the 

 reason why. So he goes further into the facts and he finds that the skin 

 is more active at night than in day time, and that means no man should 

 wear during the night the clothing worn during the day; it means that 

 the room he sleeps in ought to be ventilated better than where he lives 

 during the day time. He spends one-third of his life sleeping. He inquires 

 further. What is sleep? Who knows what sleep is? Those who thought it 

 was physical exercise have begun to think it is spiritual exercise. They 

 used to teach that we had to sleep only for the physical body, in order that 

 the physical body might repair the waste of the day, that we might re- 

 cuperate. If that were true, then the lazy man would not need any sleep, 

 when the fact is that the lazy man sleeps longer than other men. There 

 are many reasons. If you don't sleep, what is the result? Does your body 

 waste away, does it become more tired? No; it is the mind. So sleep is 

 not physical exercise altogether; it is physical exercise, but more. The 

 child has been led to this, and then what comes? If sleep is a spiritual 

 exercise, if the soul is refreshed, ought we not approach sleep in the 

 right way? Not only in the matter of wearing proper clothing, but ought 

 not the mind come in the right attitude? Ought we not get in a pleasant 

 frame of mind and remain in the right way? That bears on family life; 

 that means good temper when you get up in the morning. And in this 

 day, just in this fact of physiologJ^ can you not see that if all of this 

 knowledge a child gets at school were properly connected, shown in its 

 right relation to housekeeping and home making and home life, members 

 of the family, kindness, temper, and all these things, can you not see 

 how much better satisfied we would be with life? 



Now, this education embraces several things that are easily taught. 

 One thing, that almost seems to be more important than anything else, 

 is the subject of cookery. I suppose everybody here can cook. Men are 

 the best cooks, because they never cook. But isn't it astonishing how 



