Nature-Study Agriculture (107 



desire for them. I should make farm life 

 interesting before I make it profitable. 



It will be seen at once that all these new 

 ideals are bound to result in a complete revolu- 

 tion or re-direction of our current methods of 

 rural school-teaching. The time cannot be very 

 far distant when we shall have systems of 

 common schools that are based on the funda- 

 mental idea of serving the people in the very 

 lives that the people are to lead. In many 

 places there are strong protests against the old 

 order; in other places there are distinct begin- 

 nings of the new order. 



The beginnings of the new order are seen in 

 the nature-study movement, the establishing of 

 special agricultural schools, the strong agitation 

 for county or district industrial schools, the 

 spread of reading-courses, the rise of pupils' 

 gardens, the extension work of the colleges of 

 agriculture, the general awakening of rural 

 communities. Books and methods are now 

 derived for town schools rather than for coun- 

 try schools; the real texts for the rural schools 

 are just now beginning to appear, and they repre- 



