PART III 



THE PLACE OF AGRICULTURE IN A SYSTEM OF 

 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 



IX A Program of Agricultural Education under Christian Auspices 



The dictum that neither the Missions nor the Chinese 

 Christian Church can educate China applies with special force 

 in the field of agricultural education. The field itself is enormous 

 in extent. The costs of even a partial covering of the field are 

 prohibitive. The case for including agriculture in the system, 

 however, has been already argued, and it remains now to try to 

 discover the terms on which and the methods by which a pro- 

 gram of agricultural education can be developed as a part of the 

 system of Christian education in China. 



In.general it is recommended that a system of agricultural 

 education be developed as rapidly as possible; that the generally 

 accepted tasks of agricultural institutions teaching, investiga- 

 tion, and extension be included in the plans; that the ideal shall 

 be to build a modest but model system; and that every possible 

 effort be made to co-operate with publicly supported agencies 

 of agricultural education and development. 



It is also necessary that some well-defined objective or 

 objectives be accepted as goals of all this endeavor, specific 

 enough to seem a practical guide to projects of work, broad 

 enough to justify all the various types of effort, and wholly 

 in keeping with the main task of the Christian educational 

 system in China. ^The " slogan " of the agricultural work 

 should be, "To help Christianize the farm villages of China." 

 We need to define the word " Christianize" in the fullest 

 sense possible in order that it may include the economic and 

 social reconstruction of these social units, the villages, under 

 the leadership of the finest available ideals, that is, the 

 Christian ideals of the personal and collective welfare of 

 humanity. 



A. The Village School 



The village school is the most important single item in an 

 adequate educational system for the rural people of China. It 

 seems imperative that the Christian forces shall maintain a 



