American Forestry 



VOL. XVII SEPTEMBER, 1911 No. 9 



THE PLACE OF FORESTRY IN THE SCHOOL 



By don CARLOS ELLIS 



United States Forest Service 



GHE ideal school is an ever-changing institution, which is constantly 

 adjusting itself to its ever-changing needs. With the modifications 

 taking place in our political, economic, and social life and the develop- 

 ment of science, modern education must also change or fail in its mission. We 

 have passed beyond the period when education was for culture alone. Educa- 

 tion for efficiency is the battle cry today; and it is required that the school, 

 besides training the mind of the pupil, give him instruction in those problems 

 which he is to face in his later endeavors. To accomplish this the work of the 

 school must be correlated with the activities of the world outside. Important 

 among the scientific and economic developments of this century is the advance 

 of the principles of conservation into national prominence. The progress made 

 by this movement within the past few years has been without precedent. The 

 importance of the conservation of natural resources had long been appreciated 

 in the old world, and its principles applied. It is new to America, because the 

 country itself is new and its resources only in the early stages of their deple- 

 tion. Until very recently, our resources were valued only for their immediate 

 exploitation, and no thought was given to the morrow. Today no economic 

 problem is given more public attention. 



The idea of conservation is the greatest constructive idea of the times. 

 Although a new one in this country and of very rapid development, it has 

 come to stay. There is a danger, however, as in all movements of unusually 

 rapid growth, that it may lose much of its force unless adequate means are 

 employed to crystalize and perpetuate the intense popular approval which this 

 generation is giving it. One of the means to this end is legislation ; but a 

 far more important one is the school. Early impressions are the ones that 

 persist. Principles inculcated in the formative period of youth become 

 ingrained into the character and partake, in a way, of the very nature of a 

 man. If we would have a child develop into a financier, it is best to direct his 

 attentions early to the problems of finance; if we would have the man a 

 farmer, it is safest to make him one when still a youth. And the same applies 

 to the wider field of citizenship. If we expect to produce a good citizen, the 

 principles underlying useful citizenship should be inculcated in the boy or 

 girl; and if we would save our country from the folly of wastefulness and 

 thriftlessness, the principles of thrift should be instilled into the new genera- 



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