356 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 
science, it encourages reading for a definite purpose, the observation of natural 
phenomena, the keeping of records, and adds considerably to the appreciation of 
geography. Thus the school farm, when properly used, is a valuable means of 
education and appeals to boys on whom the older classical and mathematical methods 
make no impression. 
5. Experience shows that the school curriculum does form an important influence 
in deciding a boy’s career. The school farm would, therefore, bring to the notice of 
boys the possibilities of a career on the land. It would give them sufficient experience 
of what agriculture means, and so enable them to decide whether they are fitted or 
not for such a life. 
6. The extension of the experiment to other schools is not prevented by lack of 
land in many cases ; 50 per cent. of the schools have access to suitable land, but only 
9 per cent. use it. 
7. Development of a school curriculum in this practical direction for a section of 
a school needs encouragement because ; (a) it is educational in a very wide sense ; 
(b) Empire considerations demand it ; (c) little is being done officially either by the 
Board of Education or by the majority of Local Examination Authorities. 
8. There is need of some organisation to encourage overseas life, to link up the 
secondary schools with those societies which are able to look after the interests of the 
prospective emigrant. 
9. Whatever agricultural training a boy may receive at school, it should be clearly 
emphasised that the training is not technical such as is given in an agricultural 
college, and that it can be in no sense a substitute for a definite apprenticeship on a 
farm, whether in Great Britain or in one of the overseas Dominions. 
10. Manual training as an educational instrument does not appear to receive the 
recognition it should in the majority of schools. Comparatively few have facilities 
for metalwork, and in the majority even woodwork is optional and taken during 
out-of-school time, or, at most, in the lower forms only. 
Extracts from letter received in reply to questionnaire from headmaster of 
Abbotsholme School, Derbyshire. 
“At Abbotsholme, Derbyshire, the general scheme of education is compulsory for 
all, whether they are going to the Colonies or not. It is thought that any boy studying 
the natural sciences is all the better for having contact with actual life out-of-doors, 
contact with the soil ; some knowledge of the general methods of food production is 
considered here necessary for all educated people in order to remedy the one-sidedness 
of mere class-room instruction. 
‘Boys are largely influenced during the adolescent period particularly by what 
they see going on around. 
‘The effect of practical work on the land or in the workshop on the character 
of the boy and his attitude to his other studies has been in my experience a very 
great help in every way. Practical work of all kinds brings the boy in contact with 
the realities of life, and, when he comes into the class-room, he finds the teaching 
there throws light on the solution of the problems suggested by his practical occupation 
in workshop or out-of-doors. 
‘Every boy prefers to have active work with tools to sitting indoors over books ; 
to do practical work, especially out-of-doors, is one of the best means of relieving the 
adolescent tension, which is seriously accentuated by the usual excessive sitting 
indoors. Consequently, practical studies have an enormous moral value. 
‘ Lads brought up on a farm have a much more wholesome view about sex questions, 
and have none of that sort of shame-faced curiosity and uncleanness of mind which 
is engendered by the artificial town life. The latter admits of no access to the simple, 
natural matters of daily occurrence on a farm. 
‘Few boys have the courage to do in England what they would have to do 
overseas, owing to the snobbery which worships a type of person who is called 
“ cultured,’ and who dawdles about, amusing himself or herself, while living largely 
on incomes from investments in all manner of industrial concerns, as well as in 
Government Stocks, &¢. There is something extraordinarily attractive in the 
open-air practical life in the Dominions and United States, where everybody is 
respected, if he is doing actual work, and everybody is despised who does nothing 
but pass his life living on the proceeds of investments.’ 
