406 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.35 



gogy. He argued that not only knowledge but "skill" is a legitimate 

 and important end of education, whether the subject taught is what 

 is ordinarily called cultural, such as language and mathematics, or 

 technical, as engineering and agriculture. The interrelations of 

 technical and cultural aims in education were also dwelt upon. A 

 clear and impartial resume of the experimental researches on the 

 disciplinary value of various studies was given, with the conclusion 

 that the evidence thus far accumulated indicates that there is a 

 certain disciplinary result which may be transferred from one study 

 to another but that this is not so large as has been commonly held 

 by the friends of the old classical education. 



Dean W. W. Charters of the School of Education of the University 

 of Missouri presented some of the principles on which methods of 

 teaching should rest. He laid special stress on the principle that 

 the normal mental process in learning is to work from problems 

 toward their solution. A problem arising in the experience of the 

 student or being presented to him by his teacher, the learner may 

 become in large degree his own instructor, especially if the solution 

 is of vital interest to him. The application of this principle would 

 in many subjects result in economy of mental effort, increase of 

 interest, and more permanent results. Good method should always 

 culminate in elaborated and well-organized knowledge. 



At the seminars the practices of teaching various agricultural 

 subjects were presented by Dean K. L. Watts of Pennsylvania State 

 College on A^egetable gardening. Prof. C. G. Woodbury of Purdue 

 University on pomology, Prof. C. A. Zavitz of Ontario Agricultural 

 College on agronomy, and Prof. J. E. Kice of Cornell University on 

 poultry husbandry, as well as by members of the Massachusetts Col- 

 lege faculty and others. On Saturday a conference on the training 

 of men for agricultural service was led by President H. J. Waters, 

 of the Kansas Agricultural College, who dwelt on the nature and 

 function of the college course in its adaptation to this end, and by 

 Prof. G. A. Works of Cornell University who discussed the relation 

 of the agricultural college to the preparation of teachers of agricul- 

 ture in secondary schools. 



The conference was followed by a round-table discussion by teachers 

 of secondary agriculture on the value of the college courses in agricul- 

 tural education as a means of preparation for teaching agriculture, 

 this meeting being one of the series of conferences held during the 

 past year through the cooperation of the United States Bureau of 

 Education and the States Relations Service. During this educa- 

 tional vv^eek emphasis was often laid on the importance of training 

 in the principles and methods of education for students intending to 

 become teachers of agricultural subjects in colleges or schools. 



