THE CALL OF THE LAND 



least, of the "liberal" idea ought by all 

 means to be retained. Strip your trade 

 school of this, make your classes mere gangs 

 of apprentices thinking of naught but the 

 wages they are to earn, and, mark my word, 

 your school will be as hard to keep filled 

 with pupils as the least popular public 

 schools now. 



What we desire, then, is not a substitute 

 for the good old common school, but only 

 the old thing in up-to-date form; different 

 gifts with the same spirit; improved 

 methods, enriched courses, relatively more 

 study of things and of nature as compared 

 with mere books. From the beginning of 

 the seventh grade you may introduce voca- 

 tional specialties, preferably through sepa- 

 rate schools. I urge circumspection even in 

 this, believing that it will be found best in 

 the main to postpone specializing to the 

 high school period when, all agree, it may 

 be given fairly free rein trade high schools 

 in town agricultural high schools out on 

 the land. But let the system in every stage, 

 phase, and breath of it be one, unitary, self- 



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