302 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



only clear but permanent, as between agricultural high schools 

 that serve the people and interests of the country, and city high 

 schools that serve the people and interests of the city. 



The other method proposes not one system of secondary schools 

 for the country and another for the city, but a single system for 

 both. It proposes, for example, that the present system of high 

 schools should not be denominated "city high schools" with a narrow 

 range of interests, but that they should be so expanded in personnel 

 and equipment, and so enriched in courses, as to minister to the 

 natural interests of their environment, whatever they may be, agri- 

 cultural, mechanical, commercial, literary, and what not; and that 

 the present ungraded schools in the thinly populated country dis- 

 tricts shall be condensed into larger and stronger units, meeting 

 as they are able the educational needs of their communities, and 

 evolving naturally and ultimately into true secondary schools. 



The one proposal is logically for as many systems and types 

 of schools as there are distinct interest and lines of instruction; 

 the other is for a single system of education, with highly differen- 

 tiated courses taught in the same schools. The one proposes to 

 insert itself by main strength into the very heart of our system 

 of secondary education; the other must of necessity develop by 

 gradual process. 



This demand has assumed, therefore, serious proportions so 

 far as secondary schools are concerned, and in a very large sense 

 we are at the parting of the ways in this matter. The demand for 

 education in agriculture has come to stay. Indeed, it is but a part 

 of a larger movement for industrial education; meaning by that, 

 education with a view to some form of useful service in the funda- 

 mental industries as well as in the so-called learned professions. 

 This demand has not only come to stay, but it has the sympathy 

 and earnest support of the masses of the people and the very large 

 majority of our best educators. The only substantial difference of 

 opinion is as to the best method of procedure, whether by a series 

 of schools, of as many distinct types as there are occupations and 

 interests, or by a single system of schools with separate courses. 

 Which shall be adopted as the final American policy of education is 

 a matter before us for discussion — and there is at present no deeper 

 educational problem — and more depends upon what we actually 

 do noiv within the next five years, than it can depend on what we 

 think and say and try to do twenty-five years from now. 



This issue is upon philosophies of education so widely different 



