Rural School Leaflet 1367 



PART II 



A MESSAGE TO TEACHERS 



Beverly T. Galloway 



• HE Cornell Rural School Leaflet is intended as 

 ! a help toward keeping the outdoor viewpoint 

 1 before both teachers and pupils, who Hving 

 i and working in an agricultural community 

 ! should give reasonable consideration to the 

 I possibilities of an agricultural application of 

 j their knowledge. Knowledge unused is as 

 '' worthless as buried money; and to confine our 

 I ■ knowledge to that which is not applicable to 



I6s4^.-i,-- ,- i..^ t^«fc...«/«..<j:...^^ the living conditions in our own locality, is like 



acquiring money of a foreign coinage. It is therefore wise, since we 

 believe in rural life and in its benefits, to acquire the sort of learning 

 that can be used in our intimate everyday affairs. Then, too, since rural 

 life is an outdoor life, a great deal of work should be done out of doors. 

 The pupUs should gather their own materials and should work with these 

 materials. They should be given opportunities to apply their knowledge 

 to problems in and around the school, as in the improvement of the school 

 grounds by planting trees and shrubs or in the development and care of 

 lawns; they should be given opportunities for school and home garden 

 work. 



Each year finds further development of agricidtural teaching not only 

 in the higher institutions of learning, such as the colleges and the imi- 

 versities, but in agricultural high schools, and even in the rural grades. 

 If such work has not been undertaken in any school, simple beginnings 

 can be made, and in the course of time will lead to great advancement. 

 There is no need of forcing matters or of trying to seek more than a gradual 

 development. As far as possible this development should be natural and 

 spontaneous, and should depend rather on the child's natural desire to 

 learn than on the teacher's inclination to impart knowledge. Moreover, 

 this is the best way to secure an interest on the part of the pupil in all 

 subjects taught in the school. 



Over the portal of the children's room in the Smithsonian Institution 

 at Washington, these words are blazoned in gold: " Knowledge begins 

 in wonder." As soon as children begin to wonder about the whys and 

 wherefores of the things they see around them, then are their minds in 

 condition for receiving the impressions that will be of most use to them in 

 after years. The wonders of nature are not inside the covers of books; 

 they are in the air we breathe and spring from the ground we tread. Books 



