THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



"I found that it was necessary for me to go to Sumter again to 

 represent our work. After some deliberation $1,425.00 was appro- 

 priated for another year." 



While there is much popular support of agencies of 

 this kind, it is very interesting, in passing, to observe some 

 of the different elements which make up the whole. From 

 the very beginning all progressive school officers and teachers 

 have been good backers and helpers. They seemed to realize 

 that demonstration agents had similar motives and purposes 

 to theirs. Although there was a contrast in methods of ap- 

 proach and work, there was similarity in aim. Very few 

 county superintendents of education have been found who 

 did not grasp the work at once and lend the influence of 

 their official positions to promote it. It has been true, also, 

 with a large majority of teachers. Of course the agents occa- 

 sionally encounter' the fossilized and crystallized types who 

 are opposed to change and progress. Their horizon is so cir- 

 cumscribed that they can not see beyond the textbooks they 

 are teaching. At least the circumference of their influence 

 is marked by the walls of their schoolrooms and sometimes 

 by the edges of the rostrums upon which they constantly 

 sit. These are the exceptions, however. Demonstration 

 agents in all of the states, in their weekly and annual re- 

 ports, constantly pay tribute to the teachers who encourage 

 the boys and girls in the things the agents are trying to 

 get done. These teachers realize that such work is the 

 practical application of the truths" that they have been teach- 

 ing in the abstract. It is a source of real gratification to 

 them to see their own instruction in action and in operation. 

 The history of the valuable work of the early demonstration 

 agents is not complete without some recognition of the splen- 

 did activities of teachers and school officers as fellow helpers. 



[178] 



