1254 Rural School Leaflet 



not true in the manual experience that one needs just as much before he 

 enters college. 



The State of New York has now undertaken to maintain advanced 

 education in agriculture by the establishment of a state college and 

 several schools. It should now go back to the beginning and provide 

 the preparatory agencies. The first essential is to make it possible and 

 practicable for public schools to introduce agricultural subjects on similar 

 terms with other subjects; and this is now being actively, and I think 

 effectively, undertaken. If the State is to provide the best complete 

 enterprise, the next most important need is some kind of direct training- 

 school opportunity in agriculture. Apparently, some of the European 

 countries have distanced us here. 



These manual and training schools may be connected with existing 

 public schools or they may be separate units; but I think they all should 

 be very closely connected with the state education policy, not form a 

 duplicate system. By eliminating the purposeless long vacation and main- 

 taining a twelve months' enterprise, such training schools or classes might 

 be combined with the existing public schools without loss of time to the 

 pupil. These training schools or training classes should be many, in 

 order to meet the needs of the different localities. They should be small 

 units and strictly limited in the number of pupils, so that each pupil 

 might receive the maximum of actual hand training. The course of study 

 should be a training-school method, not a copy of existing school work. 

 If these training schools or training classes were to utilize actual farmers' 

 farms for a part of their work, the results, of course, would be much 

 better. A vacation in the country is not farm work. Living in a country 

 home is not farm work. One must actually do the work seriously and 

 as good farmers do it. There should be some way of linking up many 

 of the best farms with the training-school idea, the educational features 

 to be under the direction of the recognized educational authorities of 

 the State. 



Society should take such action as will prepare the children to go to 

 school. 



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