Rural School Leaflet. 679 



of a pupil in school. The teacher, as well as the farmer, must always 

 be consulted in respect to the content and the method of teaching agri- 

 cultural subjects. We must always be alert to see that the work has 

 living interest to the pupil, rather than to grown-ups, and to be on guard 

 that it does not become lifeless. Probably the greatest mistake that any 

 teacher makes is in supposing that what is interesting to him is therefore 

 interesting to his pupils. 



All agricultural subjects must be taught by the nature-study method, 

 which is : To see accurately ; to reason correctly from what is seen ; to 

 establish a bond of sympathy with the object or phenomenon that is 

 studied. One cannot see accurately unless one has the object itself. 

 If the pupil studies corn, he should have corn in his hands and he should 

 make his own observations and draw his own conclusions ; if he studies 

 cows, he should make his observations on cows and not on what someone 

 has said about cows. So far as possible, all nature-study work should 

 be conducted in the open, where the objects are. If specimens are needed, 

 let the pupils collect them. See that observations are made on the crops 

 in the field as well as on the specimens. Nature-study is an out-door 

 process; the schoolroom should be merely an adjunct to the out-of-doors, 

 rather than the out-of-doors an adjunct to the schoolroom, as it is 

 at present. ^ 



A laboratory of living things is a necessary part of the best nature- 

 study work. It is customary to call this laboratory a school-garden. 

 We need to distinguish three types of school-garden: (i) The orna- 

 mented or planted grounds ; this should be a part of every school enter- 

 prise, for the premises should be attractive to pupils and they should 

 stand as an example in the community. (2) The formal plat-garden, 

 in which a variety of plants is grown and the pupils are taught the usual 

 handicraft; this is the prevailing kind of school-gardening. (3) The 

 problem-garden, in which certain specific questions are to be studied, 

 in much the spirit that problems are studied in the indoor laboratories; 

 these are little known at present, but their number will increase as school 

 work develops in efficiency; in rural districts, for example, such direct 

 problems as the rust of beans, the blight of potatoes, the testing of 

 varieties of oats, the study of species of grasses, the observation of effect 

 of fertilizers, may well be undertaken when conditions are favorable, and 

 it will matter very little whether the area has the ordinary " garden " 

 appearance. In time, ample grounds will be as much a part of a school 

 as the buildings or seats now are. Some of the school-gardening work 

 may be done at the homes of the pupils, and in many cases this is the 

 only kind that is now possible ; but the farther removed the laboratory 

 the less direct the teaching. 



