coffman] secondary SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 89 



cure earlv a permanent foothold in the curriculum. It is largely 

 for this reason that agricultural schools have tended to spring 

 up independently. 



The fourth and last condition that I shall mention is the 

 necessity of having the subject more clearly defined. I under- 

 stand that there is no satisfactory textbook for secondary schools 

 on agriculture, that those that are in use treat limited aspects of 

 the field in a limited way, and that the terminolog}' and facts used 

 frequently do not meet the approval of expert scientists. If there 

 was a more definite limitation of the field, if proper equipment 

 was secured, if efficient and scholarly teachers were at hand, and 

 if the present high school force warmly welcomed the new sub- 

 ject, there would be no need for this meeting nor for any attempt 

 at a statement of principles. 



You are no doubt more interested in the principles than you 

 are in the conditions that aflFect the teaching of agriculture. The 

 conditions are being met and satisfactorily disposed of every day. 

 but the educational philosophy and principles that limit the in- 

 struction are not as yet fully agreed upon. The principles to 

 which I wish to call your attention apply with equal force to the 

 teaching of every vocational subject. As a basis for the appli- 

 cation of the principles to the specific problems of agriculture in 

 the high schools, I wish in the first place to discuss rather ab- 

 stractly a few of the generalizations of the current philosophy of 

 education that apply to the curriculum in general. 



It is an obvious fact that no curriculum can remain static. 

 As social and industrial life undergo modifications there will l)e 

 corresponding shifts in the materials of education. The modifica- 

 tion of the curriculum, in other words, is the direct result of mod- 

 ifications in social and industrial life. Every modification of a 

 school curriculum is simply an administrative attempt at conscious 

 adjustment. 



Furthermore the changes that are occurring in the world 

 outside the schools are the result of. and in turn result in the mul- 

 tiplication of human wants and needs. Some of these needs are 

 transient ; they last but a season. Those that are fundamental 

 to the life of the people — and the tests of whether they are fund- 

 amental or not are to be found in the degree with which they per- 

 sist, the extent of the spread of their practice and the number of 

 human beings who find their struggle for existence or for abund- 

 ance, i. e. for a mere livelihood or for culture and ease, consequent- 

 ly lightened — those. I say that are fundamental to the life of 

 the people, will sooner or later result in a new mode of action. 



