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the people whom it serves. These people are for the most part 

 farmers. The material of their lives is agricultural or rural. 

 Soil, plant, animal, sky, weather, work, play, farm and village 

 life, are constantly with the people. In the case of the boys 

 and girls in their farm hamlets and villages, the use of this 

 agricultural material becomes simply a phase of education from 

 environment, and justifies itself on that ground. It is practi- 

 cally what we mean in the West by ' * nature study. ' ' The value 

 of this work for training observation, securing interest and 

 giving a sense of reality to the school life does not need 

 argument. But the method must be sound, and things them- 

 selves must be used, instead of what has been written or 

 pictured about things. 



There will not be much objection to this use of agriculture 

 in the lower elementary grades in city as well as in village. 

 But a good case may also be made for its use in the higher 

 elementary grades, and indeed, in the middle school, and for 

 much the same reasons. The manual work involved in agricul- 

 ture is of great educational value to farm boys and to other 

 boys; to farm boys because it can be made to illustrate how 

 intelligence and manual labor can be combined, and to other 

 boys to show how manual labor is really educative. The larger 

 phases of agriculture should be considered in all colleges, such 

 as study of the economic and social problems of rural China. 

 These things are part of the fundamental training of citizens of 

 China, for, as long as agriculture maintains its present im- 

 portance, the educated man should know something about the 

 national implications of the rural problem. 



The character-value training as well as the mental training 

 growing out of the right use of agriculture in general education 

 must be fully appreciated, especially when the subject is taught 

 by means of practical projects. It develops initiative, ' ' grit, " 

 " stick-to-it-iveness, " as well as brings one close to realities. 

 It is a splendid corrective of false views of what constitutes an 

 educated man. 



3. Vocational Agriculture. The main use of agriculture, 

 however, is to train boys and youth for occupations that have 

 to do with farming and farm products. The grades in which 

 vocational agriculture should be introduced as a prominent 

 feature of the course must be determined in part by the time 

 when the majority of boys leaves school. As a general prin- 

 ciple, it should be given as late as possible. But in China it 



