■onser] industrial work- ix normal school 5 



or vocational education on the other. In the elementary school 

 the emphasis in all industrial and social work is upon its educa- 

 tive value; in the trade or vocational school it is upon training. 

 Relatively little attention can be or should be given to the 

 development of skill in the vocations in the elementary school. 

 But in the vocational school, skill and productive efficiency in 

 given processes is a lajge point. Of course it is evident that 

 there must be much ot educative value in the work of the voca- 

 tional school; but the primary significance of industrial studies 

 in the elementary school is to develop power to think, to under- 

 stand, to appreciate, to see the larger relationships and meanings 

 of the numerous vocational activities as they maintain them- 

 selves as vital parts of our life today, and as they have developed 

 from simple beginnings. On this basis it is entirely proper for us 

 to study and investigate the principles of soil formation, soil 

 fertility, cultivation and breeding of farm crops, methods of 

 harvesting, disposition of products, the economics of crop pro- 

 duction, the history of agriculture in some of its phases, and 

 the place of farm life in literature and art ; but it is not our 

 province in this work to teach the boy skill in handling the plow, 

 the hoe. or harvesting machinery. It is our problem to teach 

 the processes of cotton growth, spinning, weaving, and manu- 

 facture into various fabrics, these processes as they now are 

 and as they have developed, but it is not our province to teach 

 skill in the use of ginning, spinning, or weaving machinerv. 



Our industrial work is. in all cases, vitally a part of the com- 

 mon school subjects. The industries supply the raw material 

 for content values in geography and nature-study, arithmetic, 

 industrial history, and the manual arts. The industries max- 

 well serve as a fundamental basis and motive for much of the 

 work in these subjects, thereby developing a knowledge of prin- 

 ciples and processes in direct relationship to their uses. 



Our work fairly well groups itself about three central lines of 

 interest, geography and nature-study, arithmetic, and history. 

 The course of study in geography and nature-study covers the 

 eight school years. The economic motive applies m the selec- 

 tion of materials from the beginning; not as the only motive, of 

 course, but as the dominant element. The school-garden is a 

 large center of interest. In the lower grades the growing of 

 common vegetables and flowers is carried on and furnishes the 



