Problems of Instruction in the Secondary School 159 



tions of the term " agriculture " considered as a high-school 

 subj ect. 



Two writers, viewing it as a purely vocational subject whose 

 work must necessarily be given by empirical means, intended 

 to teach the art, express views strongly opposed to it. One 

 admits, however, that " agriculture following botany, zoology, 

 and chemistry, might be well and good," but thinks it " folly 

 to attempt to teach children corn judging, etc." 



A third writer, believing that " we shall be confronted with 

 the question in the near future," thinks that " there are certain 

 topics pertaining to agricultural science which might very well 

 receive recognition on the part of the universities, but there 

 are also very many which are so far away from the ordinary 

 conception of educational work that it seems to me that their 

 evaluation would be a matter of serious difficulty." 



It may be interesting to compare the above views representing 

 the leading state universities without agricultural colleges with 

 those expressed by an influential member of the faculty of 

 the University of Chicago, the most important privately endowed 

 university of the Central States, and one that resembles the 

 others mentioned in not maintaining a college of agriculture. 

 Professor John M. Coulter distinguishes between agriculture as 

 a science and as an art, and expresses the opinion that " the 

 former deserves to be accepted for entrance, the latter could 

 not be.^ The contents of botany, as you list them, are all rigfit, 

 provided the work is based on the reasons for things, and is 

 not merely empirical. It is the attitude of mind toward the 

 work rather than the work itself that determines its worth for 

 college entrance. The topics mentioned are very desirable in a 

 country high school, but not to the exclusion of other topics 



Heads of the department of botany in three state universities 

 having agricultural colleges agree that from one-fourth to one- 

 half of a full year's course in botany might profitably be spent 

 on many of the topics enumerated, provided that botany in the 



'As previously noted, the University of Tennessee will accept certain 

 agricultural knowledge based upon experience instead of on the texts 

 usually followed. 



