586 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



been persisted in it would have been the most un-American of foi- 

 bles. The persistency with which this mistaken policy was pur- 

 sued was due almost wholly to the fact that school teachers cling 

 most tenaciously to the educational philosophy of the schools where 

 they were taught. Among the most intolerant things done in Amer- 

 ican life stands out the persistency with with our educators go into 

 a new community and disregard the local interests important and 

 dear to the parent and pupils, placing the school emphasis too near- 

 ly all on the remote, as on the possibilities of becoming President, 

 or on the language of a people who knew far less than we, failing 

 to give the youth information about the things with which he or she 

 riiust deal. But far worse, this course tends actually to rob the 

 pupil of his or her inspiration for the practical affairs of the home, 

 the farm, the shop, or other work in which at least 90 per cent, 

 must engage, 



The broader plans coming into our schools have been largely thrust 

 upon the school men by men of affairs, as in our cities and by leg- 

 islators. The success of combining industrial, technical, and scien- 

 tific studies with the general studies, thus brought about, often 

 under suggestions from school men, shows that the philosophy of 

 many of the older educators was wrong. The Congress of ilio 

 United States by passing the land-grant act of 1862 establishing 

 State colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, did more than 

 all other agencies to broaden the philosophy adhered to by the older 

 school. At first the mechanics arts were brought to a -pedagogic 

 basis; then agriculture slowly but surely was brought to teachable 

 form; and last, home economics were successfully brought into the 

 domain of the school. I believe there are now no administrators 

 of these colleges who are so coni^prvative as not to be thoroughly 

 in sj'mpathy with collegiate education in engineering; most of them 

 have risen to a belief that agriculture has been reduced to teach- 

 able form; but some still have little faith in the possibility of teach- 

 ing domestic subjects. Legislative bodies, ever more ready than 

 teachers to turn our schools into practical lines have their minds 

 open to larger plans for public education. These men who see the 

 broader economic and social movements of our country and our 

 States have come to believe profoundly in scientific, technical, and 

 industrial education and research in relation to our productive in- 

 dustries in relation to home-making and in relation to our social 

 and civic life. As the management of a great railway system is 

 willing to make expensive surveys preparatory to the proper con- 

 struction at not too great cost of proposed improvements in order 

 that larger net profits may accrue to the road, so our legislators are 

 ready to have the people's money collected and expended in making 

 the peofjle more efficient in creating and enjoying wealth. 



The new school movement springing out of the Congressional land- 

 grant act of 1SG2 offers some facts of interest to legislators and to 

 all who are interested in our youth. These colleges (figures of white 

 pupils only available. Colored schools relating to the industrial 

 are mainly of secondary grade), with 12,.S34 students in engineering 

 courses, 7,272 in agriculture, and 854 in home economics, most of 

 whom ore competing for collegiate degrees cannot offer their train- 

 ing in political studies to more that a very small number of the 26,- 



