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NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE IN ELEMENTARY 



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L Vol. s -March, 1912 Xo. 3 



Peda^o^y of Secondary School Agriculture 



L. D. COFFMAN. 



University of Illinois. 



A Critical Examination of the Pedagogical Conditions and Prin- 

 ciples Involved in the Introduction of Agriculture into the 

 Secondary Schools. 



It is assumed that we are not concerned with the question 

 of whether agriculture shall be introduced into the secondary 

 schools. That it is introduced or is to be introduced is regarded 

 as an assumed fact. We therefore are not concerned with any 

 propaganda for creating a favorable public opinion for it. We 

 concede that public opinion has already registered itself in se- 

 curing the introduction of the new subject. 



There are still other questions and problems that are neces- 

 sarily eliminated from our discussion this afternoon by the title 

 given to this paper. I refer to the historical aspects of the move- 

 ment, to the scope and analysis of the field, and to the character 

 and amount of agricultural instruction to be given in the elemen- 

 tary schools, in normal schools and in colleges and universities. 



Any attempt to describe the conditions in the high schools 

 of this and of other states with reference to the teaching of agri- 

 culture, should be based upon a quantitative study of the situa- 

 tion.* As there was not much time in which to do this, no ad- 



*A very satisfactory and somewhat recent quantitative and 

 comparative study of agriculture in the secondary schools of this 

 country will be found in Dr. Clarence Robinson's thesis, pub- 

 lished by Teachers' College. 



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