87 



second term as a rule, temporarily maintaining herself until she can do some- 

 thing else. The teacher must teach everything, from the alphabet to physi- 

 ology, from physics to grauniiar. Our extension work was intended to reach 

 first the country school, but the more we pushed the work the more evident it 

 became that it is very difficult to reach the country school. \\'e think the 

 best that can be done is to introduce the subjects in the village and hamlet 

 schools, and where they have two or three or four or five teachers, so that one 

 teacher can take all of the natural-history subjects and another all of the 

 mathematics, expecting it to work outward from these centers. Centralization 

 is going on in New York State in three or four directions. 



A. C. Scott, of Oklahoma. It has been said here that the existing educational 

 provisions of the country community should be exhausted before the college 

 should seek to duplicate any of that instruction. The question naturally arises. 

 What is meant by the educational provisions of the country community? A 

 question of extreme importance in the West is, What shall be done with the 

 young men of IS or 19 years of age who have gone through the common schools, 

 but not through the high schools, and as a matter of fact do not want to go to 

 the high schools? Shall a catch-all be prepared for them? Shall a pi'eparatory 

 department be provided for them where they can say they are going to college? 

 That question gave us a great deal of concern in the Oklahoma college, and 

 three years ago we provided a preparatory department. Two years ago we 

 became ashamed of the department and dropped it, but we substituted a twenty 

 weeks' course in the subject of agriculture. We found that it was very largely 

 the young men and women who went into the preparatory dejiartment and did 

 no advanced scientific woi-k in agriculture who went back to the farm. For that 

 reason we established the short c lurses. It seems to me it will be a very long 

 time before we get agriculture established in the common schools of the country. 

 What are we going to do in the meantime? I believe the present condition 

 ought to be met by some such scheme as I have suggested, or the Minnesota 

 scheme. We are also working in our territory on a scheme by which optional 

 courses shall be given in the high school leading to the university. 



R. H. Jesse. I believe that so long as the colleges of agriculture are main- 

 taining their right to use Federal money for secondary education, so long as; 

 they are declaring that it is good policy to do so, they will continue their sec- 

 ondary schools, and will not connect \\itb the secondary school systems of their 

 States. For fifty years the University of Missouri maintained a preparatory 

 department. When I came there as president, there were not six good public 

 or private secondary schools in the Commonwealth, and I was assured that they 

 could not be built uj). Yet in the space of twelve years we have increased the 

 good high schools in INIissouri from 5 to 12.5. Missouri ought to have at least 

 250 high schools. But the rate of growth has been magnificent in twelve years. 

 So long as you hold on to this preparatory work and these temporary expe- 

 dients you are not going to catch hold of the public school system. I think 

 the one vit;il thing is that the colleges of agriculture, as well as the colleges 

 of liberal arts, should identify themselves absolutely with the public school 

 systems of their States. Meanwhile, I am not disposed to criticise rhose who 

 employ some temporary expedients, provided they have started in the right 

 direction and are going in that way as fast as they can. 



E. A. Bryan, of Washington. One of the most serious difficulties which we 

 face is the fact that under the ideals of the existing four years' high school the 

 student who has taken the eight years of elementary grade and four years of 

 high school is led away from the ideals represente<I by the land-grant colleges, 

 ixnd in most instances, unless perhaps, as may be true in Missouri, a very strong 

 iufiuence proceeding from the university or from some source secures a dif- 



