Decembek 3, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



785 



should be given to the pupil's environment 

 and experience as well as to his probable 

 future occupation. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE RURAL SCHOOLS 



This is the next great educational prob- 

 lem. In fact the rural school to-day, con- 

 sidered broadly, presents the most serious 

 educational problem with which we have 

 to deal. How to shape the instruction in 

 this unorganized, isolated and poorly 

 equipped school so that the pupils may not 

 lose sight of the farm, its life, its prob- 

 lems, its beauties, and its profits, is the 

 great question now before us. The hope of 

 these schools and of our system of public 

 education lies, not in the abandonment of 

 these country schools, not in the attempt to 

 substitute something else for them, but 

 rather in making them serve their constitu- 

 ency in the best way and contribute most 

 to the development of the boy or girl who 

 is fortunate enough to have been born in 

 the country. 



The problem does not consist in the 

 long run wholly or even mainly in finding 

 a suitable teacher, although this is per- 

 haps for the moment the limiting factor in 

 progress. 



As Professor Bailey has well said: 



If a room or a wing were added to every rural 

 school house, to which children could take their 

 collections and in which they could do work with 

 their hands, it would start a revolutuion in the 

 ideals of country school teaching, even with our 

 present school teachers. 



In short, our rural school system needs 

 to be so revised that from the very outset 

 the courses, to quote the words of a dis- 

 tinguished English educator, "shall be 

 woven around knowledge of the common 

 phenomena of the world. . . . For it should 

 be the purpose of these elementary schools 

 to assist boys and girls according to their 

 different needs to fit themselves practically 



as well as intellectually to the work of 

 life." 



I do not wish to be understood, in quo- 

 ting the foregoing approvingly, to advocate 

 the making of the graded or high schools 

 narrow or provincial. Nor would I permit 

 these schools to become in any sense profes- 

 sional—except possibly the last two years of 

 the course in a first-class high school. This 

 might appropriately be made as severely 

 professional as the funds for providing the 

 additional teachers and equipment would 

 permit. 



INDUSTRIAL SUBJECTS WILL VITALIZE 



The benefits to accrue from the success- 

 ful introduction of agriculture, home eco- 

 nomics and manual training into the 

 schools will not be confined to the direct 

 influence which this instruction may have 

 upon the industries involved, but this will 

 be found to be the best way to vitalize 

 elementary schools, and especially those in 

 rural communities. Just as these iLseful 

 subjects gave new life to our college 

 courses, so will they be found capable of 

 vitalizing the elementary courses. 



TRAINING THE TEACHER 



As before intimated, the lack of suitably 

 trained teachers for this work is tempo- 

 raril.y the limiting factor in our progress. 

 Where the teacher shall receive his train- 

 ing, and of more fundamental importance, 

 of what it shall consist, are questions not 

 yet answered. Thus far no verj-- satisfac- 

 tory place for securing this training has 

 been provided. A number of agricultural 

 colleges of the country are offering courses 

 in agriculture, etc., especially for teachers, 

 and the.se in the main have been suc- 

 cessful. 



Congress recently recognized this lack in 

 our educational system, and provided, in 

 the Nelson amendment to the Morrill Act, 



