388 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



It is a mistake to believe that the same system of education will 

 work equally well in all places. What may be best for Georgia or 

 Minnesota may not be best for Pennsylvania or Massachusetts. I 

 hold, however, that any system of education is faulty which does 

 not permit boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 to sleep at 

 home. At that age the boys and girls not only need their parents, 

 but what is perhaps no less important, the parents need the boys 

 and girls, and any system of education which looks toward the break- 

 ing up of the home life at these ages cannot be looked upon as ideal. 

 What is needed is a high school within sleeping distance of every 

 boy and girl of high school age in the state. In each of these high 

 schools every boy that wishes to do so should be able to get some 

 knowledge that will fit him directly for performing successfully the 

 most important duty of every man, viz., earning his daily bread, and 

 every girl should receive training in home economics whether she 

 wishes it or not. 



It is high time that we abandoned that educational ideal that 

 there is somi^thing unclean in preparing a boy or girl to earn a 

 living. One of the greatest college Presidents of this country re- 

 cently said: "The educated man who cannot earn his own living is 

 not worth his education." President Roosevelt in the address to 

 which earlier reference was made said: "No one can look at the 

 peoples of mankind as they stand at present without realizing that 

 industrial training is one of the most potent factors in national 

 development." 



"By the tariff and by our immigration laws we can protect our- 

 selves against the competition of pauper labor here at home; but 

 when we contend for the markets of the world, we can get no pro- 

 tection, and we shall then find that our most formidable competitors 

 are the nations in which there is the most highly developed business 

 ability, the most developed industrial skill; and these are the quali- 

 ties which we must ourselves develop." 



Although perhaps less progress is being made in the introduction 

 of agriculture into existing high schools than in the establishment 

 of specialized agricultural high schools, yet some progress is being 

 made. Dean Price, of the Ohio State University, states that about 

 fifty high schools in Ohio have introduced agricultural instruction. 



One difficulty with the introduction of agriculture into the high 

 school has been that high schools prepare students for college 

 instead of for life, and although the smaller part of them go to 

 college, the students themselves have insisted upon subjects which 

 would permit them to enter college. In New York, the State Educa- 

 tion Department has met this situation by announcing a syllabus 

 on agriculture upon the completion of which regents credit is given 

 as for any other subject. This syllabus is designed to occupy three 

 periods a week throughout the year, and it is recommended to be 

 given in the sophomore year, following the course in biology in 

 the freshman year. As far as I know, no high school in New York 

 has introduced this syllabus into its curriculum. Among other rea- 

 sons, doubtless, on account of lack of teachers to teach the subject. 

 This brings us to the question of how tills subject is to be tanght 

 if introduced into the high school. 



