1917] EDITOEIAL. 607 



addition a round-table conference was held by the home economics 

 division on the training of teachers in that subject. The topic like- 

 wise assumed great prominence in the meetings of the Association 

 for the Advancement of Agricultural Teaching, with addresses by a 

 member of the Federal Board for Vocational Education and several 

 others of the staff. 



At the general session of the association, some of the policies and 

 plans of the Federal Board were outlined by Mr. Charles A. Prosser, 

 director of vocational education, while some requisites in the training 

 of teachers under the act were discussed for agriculture, the trades 

 and industries, and home economics by the assistant directors for each 

 of these subjects. Dean Alfred Vivian, chairman of the State Board 

 of Education of Ohio, closed the discussion as spokesman from the 

 points of view of the association and the State boards. 



The address of Mr. Prosser drew attention to the large measure 

 of authority given under the act to the State boards of vocational 

 education in correlating the new system with the work of existing 

 institutions, but he expressed the opinion that the land-gi-ant colleges 

 would render very useful service. The greatest needs in develop- 

 ing vocational education he considered to be intelligent supervision 

 and a competent teaching force, and he maintained that the colleges, 

 with their unique advantages as sources of subject matter, possess a 

 special opportunity for developing strong courses to meet these 

 needs. 



A similar view as to the opportunity and duty of the agricultural 

 colleges in teacher training was taken by the standing committee on 

 instruction in agriculture in its report on college teaching in agri- 

 culture, with particular reference to the improvement of methods. 

 In this report the committee expressed the view that "strong de- 

 partments of agricultural education will be needed under the ad- 

 ministration of the Smith-Hughes Act in order to give the colleges 

 of agriculture the positions they should occupy in the training of 

 teachers of agriculture. Unless these colleges take up the teacher 

 training work actively at the present time, the funds provided for 

 this work under the Smith-Hughes Act are likely in many States to 

 be divided among a number of institutions, including some of rela- 

 tively low grade and poor equipment, with the result that our whole 

 system for training teachers of agriculture will be fundamentally 

 weak. The agricultural colleges ought to have a clear leadership in 

 this field, and they can not have this unless they adequately equip 

 their departments of agricultural education." 



The conunittee also urged the development of such departments 

 as a means of improvement of college teaching in general. It was 



22397°— 17— No. 7 2 



