RURAL AND AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 51 



promoted specialized interests long before the inclusive view is 

 attempted. 32 



Perhaps a reference and an illustration will help to enforce 

 the viewpoint of this discussion. "Professor Mann would com- 

 bine theory with practice much more intimately than occurs in 

 the law schools of the present day by requiring the student to 

 learn to operate the 'case' under study. The student must not 

 merely observe and analyze the operation of the dynamo: he 

 must actually run it and repair it when out of order." 33 Add to 

 this reference the following illustration : A boy happens to come 

 upon a man (perhaps a teacher) who is observing a small gaso- 

 line engine, evidently his own and with which he is very familiar. 

 The boy's interest causes the man to start the engine and operate 

 it for a few minutes. Later he and the boy (or the boy and he) 

 start it, operate it, take it apart, discover its secrets and prin- 

 ciples of construction and working, assemble it, start it again, re- 

 pair it when necessary, etc., until the boy knows that little engine 

 from a to z. In this "case" there is, first, the whole, the inclu- 

 sive, the objective view of a machine. Secondly, there is the in- 

 vestigation into its make-up and into the "how" and "why" of its 

 working. Thirdly, there is the re-assembling and the re-operat- 

 ing of the whole machine. There is understanding and control of 

 an outside, objective whole. The parts are known but entirely in 

 their relation to the whole machine and its functioning. The 

 farm home and the farm machine have been confused. Man- 



32. College courses in farm management naturally and 

 rightly are given after the technical courses are well under way 

 or completed. The writer does not wish to get into a contro- 

 versy on the subject of the collegiate curriculum, much as it 

 needs attention. He does, however, object strenuously to the 

 policy of secondary schools following the same plan of courses 

 in training boys for farming. He is wondering if courses in 

 "managing a farm" may not be devised, using as a basis this 

 principle of objectivity. 



33. Preface to "A Study of Engineering Education" by 

 Charles R. Mann, Bulletin No. 11, Carneigie Foundation for the 

 Advancement of Teaching." 



