No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 321 



with so much more enthusiasm that the strain of teaching seems less 

 severe. Others will object that Home Economics is merely a fad. Js 

 any subject a fad which helps people to live according to higher stan- 

 dards, by teaching them how to observe better the laws of health, how 

 to be prudent in the use of time, strength and money, and by making 

 a study of the home of supreme importance? You say that there is 

 nothing to be learned in school about house-keeping and home-making, 

 we immediately put these occupations uj)on a lower plane than others, 

 since we admit that twentieth century methods are better than nine- 

 teenth for most things, ycientitic methods are accepted in the business 

 world, why not in the home? 



If we are to have Home Economics permanently in our schools, we 

 must of necessity have properly trained teachers, and here a more 

 serious ditificulty presents itself. However, with the required intro- 

 duction of this work into Normal Schools, and with the course already 

 established at the Pennsylvania State College, opportunities are being 

 ollered for their preparation. For these teachers in schools where no 

 facilities for work are provided by the board of education, and where 

 no regular courses can be taught, a beginning may be made through 

 the noon lunch, which may develop later into a complete course. The 

 summer course for teachers at the Pennsylvania State College, while 

 it cannot give in six weeks a complete professional training in Home 

 Economics, offers much that is valuable to those who wish to know 

 how to start work through the lunch or in some other small way. 



Let it not be thought that all the needs of our rural schools will be 

 supplied by the introduction of Home Economics into the curriculum. 

 We need, as has already been stated before, a more liberal appropria- 

 tion for school work making possible better buildings, more attrac 

 tive grounds, more adequately i)ald and, consequently, better teachers 

 and a closer co-operation between school and home. However, one 

 very definite step toward some of these needed improvements will be 

 taken when Home Economics and Agriculture are introduced into 

 every rural school. 



COUNTKY SCHOOLS FOE FAKM LIFE 



By PROF. TFIOS. I. MAIRS, State College, Pa. 



It is acknowledged by nearly all that the country schools are not 

 serving their purpose so well as they once did. The object of all 

 education is to adapt the pupil to his environment. As the environ- 

 ment changes the schools must change to meet it, if they are to do the 

 work for which they are intended. If our schools had been less 

 efficient in the past there would be less difficulty to-day in adapting 

 them to present needs. Some one has said '"Man must be fluid, must 

 be able to change, institutions are not fluid, they never change until 

 forced to do so and then they fight to the death to maintain their 



21—0—1911 



