VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

 By R. W. Stimson, Boston. 



Delivered before the Society, January 13, 1912. 



Education. 



Definition and agreement as to terms are important aids to 

 profitable discussion. We are all pretty Avell agreed as to what 

 is meant by education. Education, as the derivation of the word 

 suggests, means drawing out of the individual the best capabilities 

 latent within him. 



In modern usage, education means beginning to draw out the 

 powers of the individual at the earliest possible minute in the 

 child's life, and the continuance of carefully studied efforts for 

 the development of those powers well on into young manhood 

 and womanhood. We do not wait for the child to come to the 

 primary school, or even to the kindergarten; we hold mothers' 

 meetings in order that we may begin with the babe. Four years 

 in high school, four years in college, and three or four in 

 a professional school we do not consider too much time for the 

 proper education of him who shows aptitude for a professional 

 career, whether in medicincj divinity, law, engineering, or more 

 recently, in business administration or in agriculture. 



On the whole, we believe that he is best prepared to do the things 

 the world wants done who is longest and most carefully trained; 

 and our pronoun "he" is used in the generic sense — our belief as to 

 the demands of long and thorough training applies to the develop- 

 ment of talent, without discrimination as to sex. 



Vocational Education. 



Within a year or two an attempt has been made to define voca- 

 tional education. Vocational education, in the usage of the State 

 of Massachusetts, includes all forms of specialized education the 



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