burkett] agriculture IN SOUTHERN SCHOOLS 2/ 



AGRICULTURE IN SOUTHERN SCHOOLS 



BY PROFESSOR C. W. BURKETT 

 North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 



It is never an easy task to introduce a new subject into the 

 public-school curriculum. This is due in part to the want of 

 training on the part of the teacher ; to an already crowded course 

 of study ; and to a constant disinclination to change from the 

 old way of doing things to the new, even if the latter is better. 

 The teaching of agriculture in the public schools with us has gone 

 the same way as other studies that have been added from time to 

 time. However, there has been a strong public sentiment in favor 

 of agriculture in the schools. This sentiment did not come at 

 once, but it had been before the people for a long time, so when 

 any concerted action was given results quickly followed. 



The feeling is especially strong in the Southern States that agri- 

 culture shall be taught in the schools. This is evidenced by the 

 fact that the legislatures of Virginia, Tennessee, North Caro- 

 lina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana have each 

 put agriculture on their required list of studies to bear the same 

 importance as reading, writing, arithmetic, etc. And this has not 

 been brought about by lobbying in the interest of text-book pub- 

 lishers, nor because of the demand of colleges and teachers. It 

 is the people's demand. Rural South sees the advantages that 

 would follow if her people were trained somewhat along the lines 

 they will take up in after life. She believes that it is just as im- 

 portant that her young men and women know something about 

 the soil as about the stars ; that they have some acquaintance with 

 King Cotton as well as with King Richard ; that they know about 

 some of the laws concerned with plant and animal growth as well 

 as the laws that had to do with the greatness of Greece and Rome. 

 So the teaching of agriculture in the schools is a demand of the 

 times. It is to make life fuller and richer by making the farm 

 better, and the farm home more responsive. Culture will come 

 just the same. Education, while perhaps more practical, will 

 nevertheless be just as broad and effective. 



Nor is agriculture to be taught in a desultory way. Teachers 

 are carefully preparing themselves for the work. This is seen by 

 the fact that during the past summer nearly six hundred teachers 



