Education and Agriculture 



schools, as a whole, are declining, but because 

 they are in a state of arrested development and 

 have not yet put themselves in consonance with 

 all the recently changed conditions of life. The 

 very forces that have built up the city and town 

 school have caused the neglect of the country 

 school. It is probable that the farming popula- 

 tion will willingly support better schools as soon 

 as it becomes convinced that the schools will 

 really be changed in such a way as to teach 

 persons how to live. 



" The feeling that agriculture must color the 

 work of rural public schools is beginning to 

 express itself in the interest in nature study, in 

 the introduction of classes in agriculture in high 

 schools and elsewhere, and in the establishment 

 of separate or special schools to teach home and 

 farm subjects. These agencies will help to 

 bring about the complete construction of which 

 we have been speaking. It is specially important 

 that we make the most of the existing public 

 school system, for it is this very system that 

 should serve the real needs of the people. The 

 real needs of the people are not alone the arts by 

 which they make a living, but the whole range 

 of their customary activities. As the home is 

 the center of our civilization so the home subjects 

 should be the center of every school. 



"The most necessary thing now to be done 

 for public school education in terms of country 



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