94 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [8 :3— Mar., 1912 



cent of increase of production of the agricultural products in 

 America. 



Another principle which every public school administrator 

 takes cognizance of today is that the individual and the communi- 

 ty do not require the same thing. The enrichment of the course 

 of study has been due both to outside requirements and to a 

 recognition of individual differences. Because people vary by 

 nature as to abilities we have provided them in the curriculum 

 with a greater variety of appeals. But no individual responds to 

 all of these appeals nor was it intended that he should. A com- 

 munity is made up of different kinds of people and consequently 

 of different occupations and vocations. No one any more at- 

 tempts to practice them all. "What is one man's vocation is an- 

 other's avocation, and what is technical and professional to 

 one is humanistic to another." Specialization in occupational life 

 has its counterpart in the differentiation of materials in educa- 

 tional procedure. The high school is therefore obviously devoted 

 to the problem of differentiating students according to their 

 special talents and this occurs largely as a result of the oppor- 

 tunities afforded for selection by the modern curriculum. 



The course of study required by a community is necessarily 

 far broader and contains more materials and subjects than that 

 required by an individual. The individual is restricted to a single 

 vocation and to those common cultural possessions that make 

 him an agreeable citizen and a supporter of the best in our in- 

 stitutional life. Any theorist, therefore, that argues that all pupils 

 alike must take agriculture or any other distinctively vocational 

 subject is flying in the face of the known facts of modern psy- 

 chology and sociology. 



Just what shall be the place of agriculture in the school, I 

 find to be still somewhat a matter of dispute. The agriculturalists 

 claim that it shall have a recognized place on the regular pro- 

 gram, but some of the teachers of science hold that no such recog- 

 nition is necessary. They both assert that some instruction in the 

 field is imperative. The practical school man who has little 

 technical knowledge of either field is called upon to arbitrate 

 the discussion ; and after all he is the one who in the long run 

 must settle it, but it is hardly likely that he will ever settle it 

 so as to meet the full approval of each of the contending camps. 

 However, in his opinion the recognition that should be given to 

 the subject may be briefed as follows : Agriculture should not be 

 a smattering of lx)tany, of zoology, of chemistry and of climatol- 

 ogy. Nor is it held in solution, so to speak, in nature-study and 



