SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X. 575 



times over Prof. Bruner's salary at the university for as many years as 

 his life would permit him to work. A year or two later he was given 

 $10,000 for one year of labor in South America on a similar problem. 

 Does it pay to be able to think and work? 



Havi-ng indicated along what Hnes the thought of the plowman should 

 be trained, the next question is, how and when should such an education 

 be obtained? Some one will answer by saying, go to our agricultural 

 colleges. These schools are established for the purpose of helping in 

 such problems and they are doing a grand work for all students who 

 attend. But these colleges are not sufficient, the work should begin earlier 

 in the life of the student so that a proper foundation may be made by 

 the time he enters the college. 



Not every boy who is born and reared upon a farm is fit to be a 

 farmer. Some of them are to be our best lawyers, some physicians, some 

 business men, some ministers. On the other hand is itt mot true that some 

 boys born and reared in our cities and towns are really designed to make 

 the 'best of farmers if their eductional training could be of the kind to 

 help them to discover their real work in life? Very few boys and girls 

 have any definite idea about their future calling before the ages of 

 17 or 18 years, hence it is not the part of wisdom and economy to at- 

 tempt to fit the boys in the public schools for any particular calling. 

 Some high schools have tried the experiment of organizing a commercial 

 course, only to find, affer the novelty of the idea wore away, that the 

 numiber enrolling for such work was not as great as anticipated. l<a 

 some instances the attendance, though large at first, decreased until it 

 became so small that the course was abandoned after a trial of two or 

 three years. 



The causes of such a result may have been many, but possibly part 

 of the trouble was due to the fact that few of those entering had any 

 idea of what they really wanted to do and part due to the idea con- 

 trolling the organization of the work. No common school or high school 

 can be a trade school, but all common schools and all high schools can 

 lay a foundation on which may rest the education for any trade or calling. 



Our schools should do three things for the pupils 



First — They should teach them to gather facts; that is, give them the 

 power of acquisition. 



Second — They should teach the pupils to classify facts; that is, direct 

 them in their powers of assimilation. 



Third — They should teach them to tell what they know of facts; ttiat 

 is, help them to a clear and correct form of expression. Acquisition, as- 

 similation, expression are the three fundamentals of education. In de- 

 veloping these three powers in pupils two things are of marked impor- 

 tance, viz., observation and thinking. This means a great deal and is 

 often complicated in process. Pupils must learn to see things about 

 them and to see them just as they are. After such seeing they may learn 

 to do some thinking. Too often our teaching is nothing more than nam- 

 ing words — no seeing, no thinking. Our course of study for the common 

 schools is full of branches for study with the result that much of the 

 work is done by book only. The subject is not taught as it touches the 

 life of the pupil, but simply by the words of the book, therefore is mere 



