264 J oinnal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 May, 1918. 



The main purpose of this Federal Vocational Act is to promote 

 clearly defined courses in vocational education. 



These courses are intended to provide, as far as possible, for finished 

 education in occupations for those who have entered or intend to enter 

 employment without securing a schoeiling beyond that provided by the 

 elementary school. 



The Federal Act states that all those high schools which are to 

 benefit by the Act must — 



1. Give the boy who is taking a vocational course in agriculture a 



project which will occupy six months' practical work either 

 on a piece of land rented by the boy from his father or from 

 the school. Three hours' practical work daily must be spent 

 on this project work on a commercially productive basis. 



2. Give each pupil three hours daily, or an equivalent amount of 



time, to work in school in (1) rural science, (2) rural mathe- 

 matics, (3) rural English, to supplement the practical work 

 mentioned above, and 



3. The practical work must be conducted under the direct super- 



vision of a teacher holding a special certificate in agricul- 

 ture, or a vocational certificate in agriculture. 



Several million dollars have been appropriated for this purpose 

 this year, and the amount appropriated will automatically increase 

 year by year for ten years, when the maximum amount voted will be 

 over 10,000,000 dollars per annum. 



Dr. Snyder has been appointed State Supervisor of Vocational 

 Education. I called on him at his office at Sacramento, and had a long 

 discussion on the method of working of this Act, and he was good 

 enough to make arrangements to meet some of the boys who were taking 

 a course in vocational agriculture for the first time. 



Dr. Snyder stated that the Department was very short of trained 

 teachers in agriculture. He proposed to get over the difficulty by 

 trying to find educated farmers who are interested in teaching. He 

 proposed to give them six months' intensive teaching at the University 

 Farm, Davis, and pay them commencing salaries of $1,500 to $1,800 

 per annum. 



The general opinion of teachers and University extension workers is 

 that the Smith-Hughes Act will revolutionize the teaching of agricul- 

 ture in high schools, and will ultimately profoundly influence the work 

 of the agricultural colleges themselves. The Smith-Hughes Act is 

 interesting, because by it the Federal Government has established the 

 principle of Federal aid to secondary education. 



The general feeling is that the old method of teaching agricultuio 

 in the high schools has not been satisfactory. 



In asking for reasons, 1 have been given the following as mainly 

 the cause of non-success of agriculture as a high school subject : — 



(a) The newness and the consequent want of a good method of 



teaching agriculture. 



(b) The instruction in the high school has been an imitation of 



that given by the agricultural college — that is to say, there 

 has been an attempt to teach an advanced college course 

 to young boys at the high school, without adapting the 

 courses to the age of the boy, and college courses have beeii 



