192 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



as the be-all and end-all of its effort ; it will not cheat the 

 many for the sake of preparing a few for advanced work 

 in a higher school; it will remember that most of the 

 pupils will have only a short time at school and a long 

 time at work, and it will make its instruction fit the 

 needs of the worker no less than the future needs of the 

 scholar ; it will try to keep the boy who is not clever in 

 book-studies at school and to educate him through prac- 

 tical activities with tools and in the garden ; it will re- 

 member that children are educated for life through ac- 

 tivities in play, in work at home, in handling tools, in 

 experiences in Nature's Workshop, no less than by learn- 

 ing from books; it will bring the fathers and mothers 

 back to school again by using the daily home interests 

 as the means of education of their children. It will give 

 to our boys and girls in the country an education for 

 life."* 



But better still, here again is the official voice of that 

 efficient Department in direct recognition of Grod as the 

 goal of its labors : 



I teach 



The earth and soil 

 To them that toil, 

 The hill and fen 

 To common men 



That live just here; 



The plants that grow. 

 The winds that blow. 

 The streams that run 

 In rain and sun 

 Throughout the year; 



* Ontario Department of Education. Circular No. 3, 1912. 



