﻿2 BULLETIN 1, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The result is that while there has been a widespread demand for the 

 teaching of agriculture in the rural schools, the teachers who are found 

 in these schools are generally poorly equipped to give such instruction- 



Added to the urgent demand from the schools themselves that 

 teachers should have training in agriculture, there has been the spur 

 of legislation in some 19 States in which an examination in agricul- 

 ture is now one of the prerequisites for obtaining a teachers, cer- 

 tificate. 1 



Thus it will be seen that one of the most urgent things which now 

 needs to be done in order to promote the development of agricultural 

 education is to provide better means of training teachers in agri- 

 culture. This need is especially urgent in the case of teachers 

 already in service in elementary schools. The widespread movement 

 toward the development of teacher-training courses in high schools 

 and the parallel growth of agricultural courses in these schools will 

 undoubtedly result in a few years in producing teachers for the com- 

 mon schools who have had considerably more training, both profes- 

 sionally and in scientific agriculture, than those now in service. The 

 immediate need, therefore, seems to be to provide means by which 

 teachers now engaged in regular school work, who have not had the 

 opportunity to study agriculture, and who can not afford to take a 

 year or more away from their employment in order to pursue a course 

 of study at an agricultural school, may still receive a working knowl- 

 edge of the subject in order to keep abreast of the times, as well as 

 to comply with the requirements of the law in those States where 

 agriculture must be taught. 



With a view to ascertaining just what means are now open to em- 

 ployed teachers, by 1 which they may acquire agricultural training 

 and at the same time continue in service, this office has undertaken 

 an investigation of the subject among the educational institutions 

 of the country, and the report of this investigation is included in this 

 bulletin. 



MEANS BY WHICH EMPLOYED TEACHERS MAY ACQUIRE AGRICULTURAL 



TRAINING. 



SUMMER COURSES. 



Without doubt the most popular as well as the most efficient 

 means of giving training to employed teachers are the summer courses 

 offered by the colleges and normal schools, and a large proportion 

 of these include more or less complete courses in agriculture. Since 

 these summer sessions are almost without exception intended spe- 

 cifically for the benefit of teachers, it follows that in the majority of 



1 These States are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri. 

 Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota (optional), Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina (may be required 

 for county certificates), Tennessee, Texas, Virginia (optional), West Virginia, and Wisconsin. 



