PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. — SECTION III. 47 



By combining practical work with literary studies the teacher 

 creates more interest in school life, and he can in a natural way 

 correlate the educational aspects of the school garden with the 

 other subjects of the curriculum. Practical Arithmetic and 

 Mathematics, though it may not at first sight be obvious, can be 

 intelligently taught in conjunction with gardening or its allied 

 branches, and the lessons in History and Geography can, to a 

 certain extent, be combined with instruction in Agriculture. Botany 

 and Domestic Science. 



Boys should also be made to undergo a course of Manual Training. 

 In this way they can acquire in a practical manner accuracy of 

 observation and of execution, and also obtain opportunities for 

 displaying independent thought and originality. The old idea 

 that true education is almost entirely intellectual and divorced from 

 what is practical is being disproved by the results of Manual Training 

 which show that a subject may be both useful and educational at 

 the same time. Manual work and Nature Study can easil\' be 

 correlated. 



Similarly, special provision should be made for the girls in con- 

 nection with the study of Household Science. They should receive 

 simple instruction regarding the ventilation, heating, furnishing 

 and care of houses, the uses of clothing and the keeping of accounts. 

 They should receive a definite course of lessons in simple cookery 

 and needlework. It can easily be seen how these subjects can be 

 taught hand in hand so to speak with each other, and how the 

 origin and historv of the materials can be used by the teacher in 

 connection with Geography and Nature Study. 



Nor must we forget the exceptional importance of the laws of ' 

 Health. The prime foundation of continued mental capacity is 

 bodily health. The old idea that the mind and the body are quite 

 distinct and that the one can be cultivated while the other is 

 neglected is at length giving way to a conception of the fact that 

 body and brain form an organic unit, and that no proper education 

 can be given if suitable physical conditions do not exist. Personally I 

 feel that it is as essential an element in the education given at 

 schools such as I have been describing that children who are long 

 absent from home should be provided — not by the State, unless as 

 a last resort — with an adequate meal as it is that they should have 

 lessons in Reading and Arithmetic. 



In the subjects of Nature Study, Manual Training and Household 

 Economy, the lessons should be of an informal and simple kind to 

 begin with, and should be gradually made more definite and formal 

 as the child progresses. In a school with three or more teachers 

 one at least should be specially qualified to give instruction in these 

 subjects, and in time doubtless every teacher would be able to teach 

 each of the branches. 



While the curriculum should thus be adapted to the environment 

 of the pupils, there is no reason why it should be entirely cut apart 

 from that of town schools. The literary or purely intellectual 

 parts of the curriculum would always receive their due share^of 

 attention. In some subjects the rural child would not be so far 

 advanced as his town brother, but he would have the advantage in 



