No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 107 



subject of consolidation of rural schools must not very 

 largely precede it, in order that we may have stronger in- 

 dividual school units? The teacher in the school of one 

 teacher teaches everything, from arithmetic to physiology 

 and from algebra to history ; and, although this person may 

 be an excellent teacher, I am wondering whether or not her 

 energies can be the most effectively engaged over such a very 

 wide range of subjects? I do not care so much primarily 

 whether the teacher has the special knowledge, as I do 

 wdiether she is a good teacher, and has the enthusiasm and 

 the point of view ; but she cannot have the enthusiasm and 

 point of view on all kinds of subjects. Our curriculums are 

 overcrowded. How can we ever put any new studies in the 

 elementary schools? That is the one objection to the agita- 

 tion for agricultural subjects. I am going to read you the 

 subjects that are taught in New York rural schools. I am 

 sure you will agree with me that you would not wish to 

 eliminate any one of those studies. 



Reading? Certainly not. Writing? No. Spelling? 

 Essential. English? Essential. Arithmetic? Essential. 

 Geography? Essential. 



Drawing? Yes. I look upon drawing not as a means of 

 training young people to be artists, but as a means of devel- 

 oping self-expression. What do I speak for? Merely to 

 express myself. I am making a very unsuccessful effort at 

 the present time, but I am making the effort, — you see that 

 it is laborious. Why do I write? To express my ideas in 

 another way. Why do I draw with pen or pencil? To 

 express my ideas. Now and then some child develops a 

 particular knack for representing emotions and human ideas 

 in pen and ink. That person may be an artist, as another 

 by means of Avriting may become a litterateur, and another 

 from speaking may become an orator. I think there are at 

 least three fundamental modes of expression, — speech and 

 writing and drawing; I think drawing is fundamental. 



Not very long ago, in one of the teachers' institutes in 

 New York State, which I attended, one of our teachers was 

 speaking of drawing, and drew on the blackboard a very 

 excellent picture of what she had seen a child draw not so 



