848 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 780 



would be allowed to graduate without a good 

 understanding of some subject; and most of 

 us would concede that it is worse for a gradu- 

 ate to be interested in nothing, than it would 

 be for him to be interested in a subject in 

 which he may not have been intended to be 

 concerned. 



As for his future, it will be possible for the 

 student with capacity and opportunity for the 

 highest personal development, to choose vo- 

 cational work along another line, and his en- 

 thusiastic devotion to one subject and the 

 sense of power that its mastery has given him 

 will be an incentive to determined work in a 

 new field. On the other hand, the student who 

 lacks either opportunity or desire to change, 

 will come out at a higher point when he has 

 completed his professional course, than he 

 would had he not acquired in his undergradu- 

 ate years the power to do steady, intense, pur- 

 poseful work. 



For the headship of departments exalted 

 almost to the position of constituent colleges 

 of a university, it would be necessary to find 

 men of liberal education as well as sound 

 scholarship in a single field, men who could 

 give character and vitality to a department, 

 who could make themselves felt through their 

 instructors, who could impart to students an 

 enthusiasm for work so deep-seated as to en- 

 able them to withstand the lure of other de- 

 partments when interest in familiar work was 

 brought into competition with the charm of 

 initial knowledge in fresh fields. To find the 

 right men for the top places would be difficult, 

 but it is not so impossible as to provide dormi- 

 tories with successful proctors of the elder- 

 brother type. The head professor would work 

 under conditions most favorable. He would 

 have large authority. The student coming to 

 him in the spirit of willing discipleship pre- 

 disposed to find his chosen leader wise and 

 right, would receive instruction with open 

 mindedness and respond quickly to sugges- 

 tion. By limiting his teaching to the stu- 

 dents belonging to his own department, the 

 professor could know the stimulus of working 

 in an atmosphere of scholarly concentration 

 with men seriously sharing his interests, an 



atmosphere sure to promote that most ele- 

 vating of human relationships, the impersonal 

 comradeship of those who have sunk sense of 

 self in a common quest. Even granted added 

 work for the head professor, he might in the 

 end count himseK a gainer through his en- 

 larged responsibility. F. 11. Perry 



QVOTATWNS 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AGRICULTURE IN THE 

 UNITED STATES^ 



Agriculture, including horticulture and 

 forestry (and it is well to bear in mind that 

 where I use the term agriculture I would use 

 it in the ordinary sense to include the whole 

 subject), should be a regular part of public 

 secondary education; (2) the unity of the 

 educational system should be maintained, but 

 there should be sufficient elasticity of curric- 

 ula to meet the various needs of the people; 

 (3) the standard curriculum of secondary 

 schools having agricultural courses should 

 conform in a general way to that adopted for 

 the general school system of the state ; (4) the 

 standard agricultural courses, whether in the 

 ordinary high schools or in special schools, 

 should not be narrowly vocational, but should 

 aim to fit the pupils for life as progressive, 

 broad-minded and intelligent men and women, 

 as well as good farmers and horticulturists; 

 (5) the standard courses in agricultural sec- 

 ondary schools should be so organized as to 

 form a natural and proper preparation for en- 

 trance to agricultural colleges. 



The conditions of entrance requirements to 

 colleges are, in my judgment, far from satis- 

 factory. It is not likely that we have reached 

 the ultimate plan for the preparation of the 

 great mass of students who in the future will 

 desire college courses. It seems certain that 

 when the so-called vocational subjects are 

 properly organized and taught in the secon- 



' From an address by A. C. True, director Office 

 of Experiment Stations, before the Association of 

 American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations at Portland, Ore., August 18, 1909, and 

 adopted by the association as containing a state- 

 ment of principles which it approves regarding 

 secondary education in agriculture. 



