1 72 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [5:7— oct. 1909 



Lower West Branch School, District No. 20, where I have been 

 employed as teacher. 



"The first endeavor was to awaken in pupils a desire to excel in 

 all things; to gain their interest, confidence and co-operation, 

 and then, really do something. I do not want my school to 

 'move along smoothly,' — I want it to work. 



"Interest in this line of industrial work was first awakened by 

 the announcement of our county superintendent of a meeting to 

 be held one Saturday afternoon at Pawnee City, at which meeting 

 all teachers were requested to be present and to bring with them 

 any of their pupils who might be interested in the organization of 

 county boys' and girls' clubs. On this particular Saturday it 

 rained all day but a number of my pupils accompanied me a 

 distance of about ten miles to the meeting. There we learned 

 that the object of the county organization was to create an interest 

 through the schools in some lines of agricultural, domestic 

 science and manual training work. The county clubs were 

 organized that day. We returned very much interested in the 

 new movement. 



"Our first step was to organize a boys' agricultural and girls' 

 domestic science club in our school. We knew that it would 

 require work, but we went at it with enthusiasm, and the deter- 

 mination that all should be done entirely outside of school 

 hours, and that our regular work should be kept up to the highest 

 standard. That this has been done is shown by the fact that out 

 of nine applicants for eighth grade diplomas during the three 

 years, only one has failed to pass. (The enrollment in this 

 school varies from. 20 to 25). This goes to show that outside 

 interests of the right kind tend to increase and stimulate school 

 interests; thus interest and enthusiasm are aroused and then 

 comes the determination to excel in all things. 



"We decided to give a corn and basket social. Every boy 

 and young man in the neighborhood was instructed to watch 

 for red ears of corn and every ear was sent to us. A like number 

 of both white and yellow ears were furnished by the pupils. The 

 husks were stripped back and the ears were tied in clusters of 

 three, — red, white, and yellow and hung all around the walls of 

 the school room. In the meantime the girls were experimenting 

 on brown bread and dyeing corn husks and making mats and 

 baskets of them. A lively two part program was rendered — the 



