66 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



drew attention, cannot be denied. It happens since then 

 that I, in connection with the Village Club Movement, have 

 received ample testimony that, in all parts of the country, 

 people who are concerned with the future of the rural 

 population recognise this complete cessation of any kind of 

 mental or intellectual activity after leaving school as the 

 root of the evil. Here and there, of course, there are 

 exceptions, and it is quite true that " the career is open to 

 the talents," as it has always been to the boy who has 

 within himself the necessary ambition and determination. 

 For the few who possess an inborn zeal for knowledge there 

 are thousands who need encouragement or stimulus, at the 

 impressionable age when habits are formed. Not long ago 

 an experienced teacher in rural schools put the point vividly 

 in the statement that most of the children when they left 

 school could neither read nor write. They had, of course, 

 acquired the mechanical ability to translate printed char- 

 acters into words and to set down sentences on paper, but 

 they were unable to read with understanding or to express 

 any thoughts of their own in writing. 



Sir Daniel Hall discussed the question whether a con- 

 tinuation school should have a " vocational " value and, if so, 

 what form it should take. Should it, he asked, take the 

 form of craft education ? Should teachers teach ploughing, 

 hedging, draining, thatching, and dairy work ? Farmers 

 said, " We want boys prepared for our work and made useful ; 

 we look to the continuation schools to teach the work they 

 will have to do on the farm." The alternative was the old 

 method, crafts taught by men themselves skilled in them. 

 The boy on a farm was put to work on the land and learnt 

 his job from the man, but there was no formal education. 

 They slowly learnt their job. This was the old and natural 

 way. Another view advanced very often was, " As we are 

 so short of skilled labour we must get a new race of skilled 

 labourer." 



Districts that had gone out of plough had now come back 

 and there was no one to teach ploughing unless the school 

 would teach them. It was said, " Boys are not anxious to 

 learn country work." He had seen this reluctance on the 



