FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 143 



ment of the child, so that the school may not be to him "a thing remote 

 and foreign." The value of nature study is recognized not only in thus 

 making possible an intelligent study of the child's environment, but in 

 teaching a love of nature, in giving habits of correct observation, and in 

 preparing for the more fruitful study of science in later years. Our best 

 farmers are also coming to see that nature study in the rural schools 

 is a necessity, because it will tend to a knowledge of the laws that govern 

 agriculture, because it will teach the children to love the country, be- 

 cause it will show the possibilities of living an intellectual life upon the 

 farm. Nature study, therefore, will have a very direct influence in 

 bringing the child into close touch with the whole life of the farm com- 

 munity. 



But it is not so much a matter of introducing new studies, — the old 

 studies can be taught in such a way as to make them seem vital and 

 human. Take for instance geography. It used to be approached from the 

 standpoint of the solar system. It now begins with the school house and 

 the pupils' homes, and works outward from the things that the child sees 

 and knows to the things that it must imagine. History, writing, reading, 

 the sciences, and even other subjects can be taught so as to connect them 

 vitally and definitely with the life of the farm community. Let me quote 

 Colonel Parker, who suggests the valuable results of such a method of 

 teaching : "It would make a strong, binding union of the home and school, 

 the farm methods and the school methods. It would bring the farm inta 

 the school and project the school into the farm. It would give parent 

 and teacher one motive in the carrying out of which both could heartily 

 join. The parent would appreciate and judge fairly the work of the 

 school, the teacher would honor, dignify and elevate the work of the 

 farm." The study of the landscape of the near-by country, the study of 

 the streams, the study of the soils, studies that have to do with the loca- 

 tion of homes, of villages, the study of the weather, of the common plants, 

 of domestic animals, — all of these things will give the child a better start 

 in education, a better comprehension of the life he is to live, a better idea 

 of the business of farming, a better notion about the importance of agri- 

 culture, and will tend to better fit him for future life either on the farm 

 or anywhere else, than could any amount of the old-fashioned book 

 knowledge. Is it not a strange fact that so many farmers will decry book 

 knowledge when applied to the business of farming, and at the same 

 time set so much store by the book learning that is given in the common 

 arithmetic, the old-fashioned reader, and the dry grammar of the typical 

 school? Of course any one pleading for this sort of study in the rural 

 schools must make it clear that the ordinary accomplishments of reading, 

 writing and ciphering, are not to be neglected. As a matter of fact, 

 pupils under this method can be just as well trained in these branches as 

 under the old plan. The point I want to emphasize, however, is that a 

 course of study constructed on this theory will tend to bring the school 

 and the community closer together, will make the school of more use to 

 the community, will give the community more interest in the school, 

 while at the same time it will tetter prepare pupils to do their work in 

 life. 



2. A second means of making the rural school a social center is 

 through the social activities of the pupils. This means that the pupils 

 as a body can cooperate for certain purposes, and that this cooperation 

 will not only secure some good results of an immediate character, results 



