Laboratory Teaching 159 



school system, affording opportunity for 

 somewhat advanced training to those pupils 

 that are particularly interested in the subject ; 

 they should never be the instruments of divert- 

 ing public attention from the necessity of 

 allowing every school and every pupil the 

 advantage of training by means of agriculture 

 and industrial subjects. 



I am afraid that we are accepting, without 

 question, the present method of the high 

 school and college, particularly its laboratory 

 method. In the argument for separated rural 

 schools I am always struck with the plea that 

 good laboratories may be secured. A good 

 part of this argument comes from college men. 

 It does not at all follow that our four-wall lab- 

 oratory methods are as useful for the second- 

 ary schools as for colleges and high schools. 

 In fact, it is a question whether much of our 

 laboratory work is really worth the while, as 

 compared with good natural field-work under 

 the conditions that are everywhere at hand. 

 The agricultural schools and colleges, of all 

 others, should develop the highest kind of 



