208 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



of the boy or girl who does not approach it tlirough compelling 

 curiosity as to its actual or possible applications. "'What's the usef'' 

 is the attitude of most of those who quit the schools as early as the 

 law allows. 



Agriculture can be taught in a way that is adequate to the interests 

 and abilities of seventh and eighth grade students, and in the teach- 

 ing also develop an interest in all its related subjects strong enough 

 to discover something of their personal values to the learner. It is 

 suspected that it might even lead the teacher to perceive new values 

 in some of them, and thus help toward a wiser discrimination between 

 the important and the unessential in subject-matter to be taught. 

 In short, the pre-eminent advantage of agricultural study in the 

 lower grades is that it discovers to the student concrete, embodied 

 applications of scientific facts and principles Avith which he desires 

 to become better acquainted. It is certainly unpedagogical to bring 

 the subject into the curriculum without appreciating and utilizing its 

 strategic importance in conserving and developing the will to know. 



The claims of agriculture for use as introductory and coordinating 

 science, and its advantages for this purpose over any other subject 

 thus far tried or proposed, may then be summarized as follows: 



(1) It inter-relates not only the various special sciences but also 

 many other subjects of school study, and thus tends to put the 

 student in harmony with a systematic educational programme. 



(2) It ofl'ers the most serviceable basis for a prompt yet conserva- 

 tive redirection of public school work through a wiser pedagogical 

 organization of the curriculum. 



(3) It provides an interesting form of laboratory work and field 

 observation at the beginning of the high school course, thus demon- 

 strating at the outset the fundamental importance of investigational 

 evidence in all science work. 



(4) It supplies an economic as well as a cultural motive for science 

 study, and thus allies itself with the spirit of modern educational 

 thought and appeals most effectively to the personal interest of a 

 majority of students. 



(5) It tends to develop in the student the ability to make a wise 

 choice of personal vocation by bringing the basic industry of farm- 

 ing into conscious comparison with what he knows of other attractive 

 professions and occupations. 



(G) It explains and illuminates the fundamental conditions of his 

 own environment and daily life, and thus aids in rationalizing the 

 student's experience and in fitting him as an adult for social coopera- 

 tion in the betterment of community and national life. 



(7) It encourages the habit of discovering and enjo3'ing the cul- 

 ture value of every useful subject of study by enlarging the basis of 



