EDITOKIAL. 405 



diversity of conditions prevailing in the various States and deems 

 the adoption of any arbitrary and inflexible system both impracti- 

 cable and undesirable. 



In no respect are the two commissions more thoroughly in accord 

 than in their realization of the scarcity of well-trained instructors 

 and of the fundamental necessity for providing means for their 

 more adequate preparation. Thus, the United States commission 

 believes that " the development of vocational education along right 

 lines both for agriculture and for the trades and industries will 

 depend largely upon the ability to secure and retain well-trained 

 teachers." The dearth of such teachers and facilities for training 

 them was emphasized by most of those testifying at the various 

 hearings. The commission states that "excellent as has been the 

 technical preparation which the state colleges of agriculture and 

 mechanic arts have given to their students, many of them have 

 not as yet developed departments of education adequate to the task 

 of training prospective teachers either of agriculture or the mechanic 

 arts in the administrative and teaching problems of the vocational 

 school," and it draws attention to the fact that although under the 

 Nelson amendment over $1,300,000 was provided for the fiscal year 

 ended June 30, 1913, from which an indefinite portion could be 

 expended for the preparation of teachers, but $34,000 was actually 

 utilized for this purpose. "We can not rightly undertake a pro- 

 gram of practical education in this country and carry it through 

 successfully without teachers properly qualified by training and 

 experience for their work and with practically no facilities for their 

 proper training in the future." 



So, too, the Canadian commission declares that " at the present 

 time the supply of competent men obtainable as instructors in agri- 

 culture is entirely inadequate to meet the demand. It is important 

 that thoroughly trained men should be available. Men for this 

 educational work need liberal education and practical experience of 

 work similar to that of the department which they are to direct. 

 Their general education should give them a good grounding in 

 the natural sciences, particularly in their relation to the science and 

 art of agriculture. They should have a good knowledge of technical 

 and practical agricultural and farm practice, and have sound ac- 

 quaintance with the important questions in economics and sociology, 

 as applicable to rural communities. It is also important that they 

 should have a good knowledge of the art of teaching and the under- 

 lying principles of it. It would seem necessary that the district 

 instructor should be a graduate of an agricultural college or have 

 the education of a rural high school and be a graduate of the science 

 department of an arts college. The qualification for a teacher in a 



