118 



clouientarv asricxiltni-e. but oven this is not required of any particular class. 

 However, with all these jiaius. scarcely more than a beginning' has lieen made. 

 MtM-o knowledge of facts and methods will not suffice, since the aim of the 

 reforms or ciianges under discussion is not so nuich addition to the already 

 crowded currirulnm of the public school, as it is an attitude of mind which will 

 enable the teacher and pupils alike to understand and sympathize with the 

 condilions under which such a vast numl)er must live and move and have their 

 l)eing. Since the object is the interi)ret:ition of known facts, the infusion of 

 inter"est into what h:is been l)ut half known and wholly unappreciated, knowl- 

 edge of how to manipulate the material at hand, how to correlate its sections, 

 iiow to vivify it. becomes of cardinal importance, and right here the function 

 of the normal school gains new significance. The normal schools must serve 

 .•:s educational transformers. The colleges and universities at this stage of 

 the game are like great dynamos, furnishing scientific information and training 

 i'nd generating interest in the subjects to be taught. The normal schools must 

 lake this i»owerful. high-tension current and reduce it to such form that it 

 may I»e safely and continually used by the millions with profit and cunndative 

 satisfaction. " The l;ind-grant colleges may apply their knowledge directly, as 

 at ("ornell University and Iowa State College, through farmers' institutes, pub- 

 lications, and corresi)ondence. and short sessions on an untechnical basis. In 

 this way many adults of the present day may be reached, but the process viewed 

 as a reforniati\e measure is unsatisfactory — a palliative rather than a cm-e. 

 To change the figure, it is but setting a few grafts well out on the limbs of a 

 mature tree from which will come some improved fruit ; while what is really 

 needed is an early graft of the sapling, so that all its fruit shall be good, so 

 that all the sap from the common earth and all the forces from the common 

 air shall go to make fair and luscious fruit, not small, sour, scrubby, useless 

 apples or grapes. 



Cooperation of the land-grant colleges and the normal schools in this high 

 endeavor has hardly begun. The initiative must certainly come from the college 

 side, where the need is most appreciated and where the knowledge is 'ready for 

 transformation and transnnssion. Assmning that these colleges are preiiared, 

 l<y their courses in the sciences and arts most applicable to country life, by 

 their lectures within their own walls or in extension lectures, and through the 

 workers in connection with the experiment stations, to furnish the teachers of 

 teachers with e<pu])nient for their work, what may be asked of the normal 

 schools'/ First, and most fundamentally, that they impress upon those whom 

 they graduate the ncn-essity of adapting the work in English. es])ecially in com- 

 position, all through the grades, to the facts, experiences, and ideals of the real 

 and enlarging life ()f the child in the conununity — less imitation of the stilted 

 language of the readers and the literature prescribed and more of the natural 

 expression of the thoughts that projierly fill a boy's mind : less of " Snow- 

 liound " and "Planting the Apple Tree" for i»upils in southern California, and 

 more of the jilanting and care of an orange orchard, or the ways of getting and 

 using water for irrigation. Second, that the work in nature study be enlarged 

 and steadied, relieved of the air of sentiment which too often envelops it. and 

 turned si)ecifically in the direction of agriculture in those schools which train 

 largely for noniu-l)an schools— the ways of brooks, the sorting and gerndnation 

 of seed, the ways of animals, the meaning of temperatures. The normal 

 schools may reasonably claim the active cooperation and assistance of the land- 

 grant colleges in this training of teachers. Courses of lectures could easily be 

 .-in-anged in subjects related to the topics just mentioned in such normal schools 

 .•;s Oshkosh, Wis.; Winona. Minn., and Charleston. 111., by the staff of the land- 

 gi'ant colleges of those States: nor (mght tlu' men selected to give such extra- 

 iiun-al com'ses tt) be recpdred to give them in addition to full regular work in 

 their home institutions. Such courses should be counted as )»art of the regular 

 duties of certain ])rofessorships. Short courses and sunnner courses may lie 

 made to serve the same iiuri)ose. though in such cases the prospective teacher 

 may be reqiured to go to the lecturer in jilace of the lecturer going to him. 



In view of the new and hopeful demand for betterment of conditions of life 

 in the country, it does not .seem unreason.d)le to expect that the day is not dis- 

 tant when teachers api)lying for positions in the villages and in the countr.v 

 will be reciuired to i)resent evidence that they have taken courses along the lines 

 suggested in this paper, by which they will l>e iirei)ared for intelligent stinuda- 

 tion of enthusiasm for the wholesome life of the counti-y in the minds if those 

 who shall soon sh.ipe the course and sentiment of the vast agricidtur;il ])opida- 

 tion. 



