274 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



Bbitish Columbia. 



Agricultural Courses in High Schools. 



'The value of agriculture as an educational subject, which develops the mind of 

 the student by teacliing him in terms of his everyday surroundings rather than in 

 terms of the abstract and remote, is becoming more apparent each year. One-third 

 of the present public schools' teaching staff in Langley are graduates of our High 

 School Course in Agriculture, and by their ease of adaptation to the needs of the rural 

 schools and interesting and practical methods of teaching the course in nature study 

 and elementary agriculture have emphasised to a surprising degree the technical 

 value of the instruction given in our High School Course. 



' The feeling is growing amongst the people generally that if the education of 

 to-day has any relationship whatever to the welfare of the people of to-morrow, 

 then agriculture, both educationally and vocationally, is a subject that must not be 

 neglected. 



' The teaching of agriculture in " High Schools " is now well established in all the 

 Provinces of the Dominion, and is meeting with greater success year after year. 

 This is partly due to the fact that better-qualified teachers are being employed than 

 formerly, resulting in more efficient instruction, and partly to a better understanding 

 of the real nature and value of the work on the part of parents and school authorities. 



' The regular two-year course in agriculture is now carried on in twelve High 

 Schools and one Superior School in the Province, the total enrolment for the year 

 being 510, an increase of fifty-three over last year. The two-year course in agricul- 

 ture is given in Grades X. and XI., and in most cases is preceded by a course of 

 general science in Grade IX. This introductory course in science has been found 

 advantageous as an introduction to the study of agriculture as well as to other branches 

 of science, and is usually taught by an agricultural instructor. 



' The offering of courses in agriculture in city High Schools was looked upon at 

 first as a rather doubtful experiment, and no doubt many were ready to regard it as 

 rather fantastic and quite inappropriate as a subject of study in such schools. Those, 

 of course, who so regarded it were labouring under a wrong impression as to the 

 character and purpose of these courses — the impression that only those boys who 

 were definitely preparing to go on the land to earn their living could possibly be 

 interested in such courses or could hope to be benefited by them. After six years' 

 experience in the City of Victoria and three in New Westminster, and an even longer 

 period in smaller cities in the Province, there is little room for doubt as to the beneficial 

 character of the work in those cities. Spasmodic efforts are made from time to time 

 by Boards of Trade and other organisations to promote mutual understanding and 

 good-fellowship as between the rural inhabitant and the dweller in the city. This, 

 of course, is highly desirable, but in no way can it be as soundly and permanently 

 established as by giving to city-bred boys and girls the opportunity to study at first 

 hand the essentials of food production and of rural economics. City boys and girls 

 have responded in a very satisfactory manner in every case where an opportunity 

 was offered them to include the study of agriculture in their elective courses. We 

 should have more agricultural specialists in our city High Schools. 



' We must all, however, confess to a certain amount of surprise at the remarkable 

 degree of success which has attended the study of agriculture by the girls in our 

 various High Schools. In the classroom, in the experimental gardens, and in the 

 judging pavilion they have more than held their own, for they have succeeded on 

 more than one occasion in carrying off the premier honours in examinations and in 

 agricultural judging competitions in which more boys than girls participated. 



' The High School agricultural classes are steadUy growing in size and the work 

 is gaining in popularity. Not only is this shown by the increasing number of students 

 electing agriculture, but also by increasing interest manifested by the ratepayers 

 themselves. It is gratifying to know that even during a period of retrenchment, 

 due to poor prices for crops, it was not thought advisable to discontinue the teaching 

 of agriculture. This attitude is in a measure due to the realisation that teaching 

 through and about the daUy life of the community is sound pedagogy. 



' It has been established by years of observation that even the most promising 

 boys who leave the Old Land to go into rural life and work in the Overseas Dominions 

 have not always succeeded, and have had to learn, often by disheartening experience, 

 many things fundamental to such life and work which they might readily have learned 

 in a large measure in Secondary Schools at home, had they been but given the 



