Problems of Instruction in the Secondary School 183 



We need clearer ideas regarding the pedagogical principles 

 involved in this and other science teaching. 



We need a clearer understanding regarding the domain of this 

 and the other sciences, and we also need more cooperation be- 

 tween them to save time and teaching energy. The sciences 

 should change their viewpoint, and thus allow agriculture to put 

 its time on the more technical phases of its subject matter. 



Agriculture should be recognized as an instrument of educa- 

 tion in the sense of affording mental training, as well as in the 

 sense of furnishing an acquaintance with the environment, and 

 should be used as such. The scientific method of thought should 

 have a more definite place in the instruction. 



Agriculture is probably as well taught as the other sciences 

 in the same schools. 



Current practice places agriculture in the lower years of the 

 high-school curriculum ; and so it will probably function more 

 and more as an " introductory science," as physical geography 

 was once expected to do. It can not then avail itself of the 

 training and information gained from the other sciences as some 

 of its advocates would have it do. 



As given in the grades, it is very imperfectly differentiated 

 from that of the high school. 



This differentiation must largely be worked out and be made 

 apparent by the schools that train teachers for the elementary 

 and high schools. 



Agriculture as a separate branch in the elementary-school cur- 

 riculum is bound up with the question of differentiating our 

 entire system of education at about the age of twelve, as urged 

 by many interested in industrial education. 



Lack of equipment need not discourage teachers as it does. 

 We have not by any means exhausted present resources. 



Home garden work has proved to be an invaluable aid to 

 school work, and has certain advantages over the school garden. 



Lack of time is a matter of will, management, and public 

 opinion. The sentiment of the community is very often ahead 

 of the preparation of the teacher, and is willing to spare time 

 from some of the traditional studies whose chief justification 

 is a supposed disciplinary value. 



