TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 35 



with the person taught, the participation of the pupil in the 

 actual demonstration of the lesson being taught, and the success 

 of the method proposed. It is a system which frees the pupil 

 from the slavishness of text-books, which makes the field, the 

 garden, the orchard and even the parlor and kitchen classrooms. 

 It teaches us to 'learn to do by doing.' As President Wilson said, 

 'It constitutes the kind of work which it seems to me is the only 

 kind that generates real education; that is to say, the demonstra- 

 tion process and the personal touch with the man who does the 

 demonstrating/ " 



Farmers and county agents who have come to have famil- 

 iarity with the great work being carried on under this Act, 

 will appreciate both the wisdom of Mr. Lever's conception 

 and the accuracy of his vision into the future. They will 

 be reminded of how they together selected seed corn and 

 pruned apple trees and of how the women taught them- 

 selves the principles of dress-making in the parlor and of 

 canning in the kitchen. 



WHAT DO FARMERS EXPECT ? 



To teach and to give information to persons "in the 

 localities where they reside" was evidently what Congress 

 had in mind as the work of the county agent. Since the 

 states were expected to largely determine their own pro- 

 grams of work chiefly through the colleges of agriculture 

 it will be seen that the point of view of these institutions 

 is of great importance. 



But the colleges, primarily teaching institutions them- 

 selves, clearly look upon extension work as teaching and 

 information giving. Evidence of this is found in the fact 

 that this work is generally denominated among them as 

 "extension teaching." Moreover, as has already been 

 pointed out in Chapter I on programs, just as under the 



