CHAPTER VI 



Deductions and Conclusions 



The purpose of this chapter is, to present conclusions based on 

 the findings presented in the preceding pages, viewed in the light 

 of the writer's acquaintance with farming needs and school condi- 

 tions as they exist in the state. 



What Should be the Aim or Purpose of Teaching Farm Shop 

 Work as a Part of Vocational Agricultural Education? The aim or 

 purpose to be kept in mind in teaching farm shop work may be 

 stated in this way : It is self-realization through individual pur- 

 posing, planning and doing the kinds of repair and construction 

 work that successful farmers of the region engage in. By self- 

 realization is meant the development of one's best self in ways that 

 promote and perpetuate the ideals and best interests of society. 



When it is said that the purpose of farm shop work is to give 

 manual skill, accuracy of eye, or a knowledge of tool processes, only 

 a part of the story is told. All these enter into farm shop work 

 but they are only means to ends instead of ends in themselves. To 

 be sure, farm shop work as a part of vocational agricultural edu- 

 cation must make a demonstrable contribution to vocational ef- 

 ficiency. If the instruction does not lead to economic production 

 to more prosperous agriculture it fails in a vital way, but educa- 

 tionally it is important to think of the boy as the chief product of 

 farm shop work instruction, and of the work performed merely as 

 perhaps the best single, tangible evidence of his vocational de- 

 velopment. Xow this does not mean that good standards of work- 

 manship are not essential. It means that through the application 

 of certain well recognized laws of psychology and of pedagogy bet- 

 ter material and social results can be secured through major em- 

 phasis on the individual pupil as a developing democratic citizen 

 than can possibly be obtained through narrow vocational training 

 the purpose of which is habit formation, as distinguished from vo- 

 cational education the purpose of which is habit formation plus 

 individual purposing and reasoning. 



Kinds of Work That Should Be Undertaken. The kind of 

 work which farm boys need to know how to do is not that which 



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