Problems of Instruction in the Secondary School 177 



A few of the extreme expressions may be of interest: " Pupils 

 enjoy the work beyond all my expectations," " heart and soul 

 in the work," " like it, the only trouble there is not enough." 

 Concerning the attitude of the patrons in particular : " Would 

 not do without it," " watch the work closely," " regard the work 

 as practical," " parents read the text-book." One superintendent 

 said that his class could not get the books because the farmers 

 bought them as soon as they arrived in town, and that the book- 

 seller had to order the books three times. In two or three cases 

 the pupils were reported as interested, while the patrons were 

 neutral or hostile. 



In nearly every case reporting a dislike for the subject, the 

 returns also showed that the work included neither class-room 

 experiments, demonstrations, nor practical home work. Under 

 the circumstances one would expect nothing else. Others re- 

 ported " no demand for it," " prejudice against book farming," 

 and one, that it was hard to make the work seem practical 

 to the patrons. Many of these cases, I believe, could have been 

 managed by not labelling the study so conspicuously as some- 

 thing never before taught, and, by incorporating instead, the 

 material in subjects already on a safe footing. In one school 

 the work was introduced under the heading of geology to meet 

 the objections of an influential citizen. He has since given sev- 

 eral hundred dollars for agriculture, and it is taught in all four 

 years of the high school. In contrast with the cases of indif- 

 ference just noted, is the school whose superintendent told me 

 of knowing that, out of twenty graduates that year, four would 

 not have entered the high school from the country but for the 

 respect their parents entertained for the unpretentious course in 

 agriculture. Another school placed animal husbandry in the 

 first year, an unusual place, because that work appealed to the 

 parents as so eminently practical that they were willing to have 

 the boys continue in school in order to get that kind of work. 

 Two city boys graduating from a school where the subject was 

 regarded " with doubt " chose to enter the state agricultural 

 college. 



The pupils in a New York high school are " indifferent be- 

 cause the work is too closely allied to their home life ( !) ; they 



