45 



little to any marked peruliarities they might chance to possess. Such nature 

 study forms an excellent basis for the subsequent study of more formal agri- 

 culture. It has been tried in both city and country scIkmiIs. and has been found 

 to furnish n it only a means for arousing and sustaining the interest of the chil- 

 dren, but also through its economic limitations an outline sufliciently definite 

 to enable the teacher to know where to stop, and yet sutliciently fl(>xible to 

 enable her to adapt it to lical conditions. 



Nature study such as this, having an agricultural trend, is aitout all that has 

 been attem[>ted in the way of teaching agriculture in the rural schools until 

 quite recently. Witliin the past two or three years, however. .State su])erinten- 

 dents of inii)lic instruction, the officers of some of the agricultural colleges, the 

 National Educational Association, the American Civic Association, as well as a 

 number of other oi-ganizations and numerous individuals in various official 

 positions have interested themselves in the introduction of elementary agri- 

 cultiu-e and gardening in the rural schools. The National Edu<-ational Asso- 

 ciation now has a special ccmnnittee of educators of national repute considering 

 this subject. The Amei-ican Civic Association has one department devoted to 

 children's gardens and another to rural improvement. Last June, in Chicago, 

 an organization known as the American League of Industrial Education was 

 organized to — 



"conduct an educational camp.iign for an industrial public school system 

 which should include the teaching of domestic science and both agricultural and 

 manual training in all pui)lic schools; * * * ^q promote the establishment 

 of school gardens in connection with all jiublic schools, where every child would 

 be taught to be a lover of nature ;ind of the country, and trained toward the 

 land as a source of livelihood rather than away from it; ^ * * to advocate 

 the estal)lishment of i>ublic mainial training school farms in every county in the 

 United States and of as many such manual training school farms in the vicinity 

 of all cities, by State, municipal, and national governments, as may be neces- 

 sary to give to every l:oy the o])portunity to learn how to earn his living by his 

 labor and to till the soil for a livelihood and get his living from the land." 



Some of the State school authorities, orticers in agricultural colleges, and 

 county superintendents of schools have prepared outlined courses in agriculture 

 which have exerted a strong infiuence toward the teaching of agriculture in the 

 rural schools. Such courses have been prepared, for example, in Missouri, 

 Illinois, and Indiana, and for a group of schools under one superintendent in 

 Durham, N. H., and vicinity. 



The Illinois cour.se in agriculture was prepared by the dean of the college 

 of agriculture, and gives the following reasons for teaching agriculture in the 

 public schools : 



"(1) To cultivate an interest in and instill a love and respect for land and the 

 occupation of agriculture. 



"(2) To create a regard for industry in general and an appreciation of the 

 material side of the affairs of a highly civilized people. 



"(f>) To cultivate the active and creative instincts as distinct from the 

 reflective and receptive that are otherwise almost exclusively exercised in our 

 schools. 



"(4) To give practice in failure and success, thus putting to the test early in 

 life the ability to do a definite thing. 



"(5) To train the student in ways and methods of ac(|uiring information for 



himself and incidentally to ac(iuaint him with the manner in which information 



is originally ac(iuired and the world's stock of knowledge has been accumulated. 



"(<>) To connect the school with real life and make the value and need of 



schooling the more apparent. 



"(7) As an avenue of connnunication I»etween the pupil and the teacher, it 

 t>eing a field in which the inipil will likely have a larger bulk of information 

 than the teacher, but in which the training of the teacher can help to more 

 exact knowledge." 



The course is arranged by months, and gives suggestions for a large number 

 of experiments and observations bearing on all the divisions of agriculture. 

 Considerable reading along agricultural lines is suggested, as well as drawing. 

 comi)()sition, and other work intended to correlate agriculture with other school 

 work. All technical words likely to be used frequently in this connection are 

 defined. 



This course has been in the hands of Illinois teachers one year, and the 

 superintendent of public instruction reports " an increased interest throughout 

 the State in tlie study of agriculture." He says : 



