FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 137 



often do their work, etc., is due to the teacher, think you? It is the 

 duty of school boards and superintendents to see that none are employed 

 as teachers unless they are teachers in every sense of the word. Those 

 who are not actuated by merely mercenary motives, social position, or 

 anything else other than fulfilling their proper duties in the world. Am 

 1 digressing from my allotted subject? I think not; without the one 

 you cannot make the other possible. 



When I speak of manual training in the grades, I do not mean to 

 limit it to graded schools located in cities and towns. I see no reason 

 why a certain amount of manual work cannot be taught in the rural 

 schools. Teachers in the district school could, in a very short time, pre- 

 pare themselves to teach all the sewing that would be necessary to give 

 to girls as far as the completion of the eighth grade. Cooking lessons, 

 and work for the little boys, would be quite easily learned, but not as 

 easily put into the rural schools, due to the necessary appliances, etc. 

 We are all interested in the much-talked of plan at the present time — 

 the centralization of the district schools, and when this is brought about, 

 the introduction of the manual work will be a comparatively easy thing. 

 I sincerely hope the time will soon come when all students may have 

 the opportunity of just this sort of an education — whether they are located 

 in the country districts, or in the towns. The school education of 

 many of them will stop with the completion of the course in the home 

 school, and they should not be entirely deprived of this instruction along 

 manual lines. 



(Following these general remarks, a portfolio was exhibited, showing 

 the preliminary sample work done at M. A. C. in sewing, fully illus- 

 trating what part of this work is well adapted to use in graded schools, 

 and also in the rural schools. This should be followed in the inter- 

 mediate schools by simple garment making, and this by the more com- 

 plex pattern drafting, cutting, fitting and making of garments as the 

 work reaches the high school.) 

 18 



