How The Cornell Rural School Leaflet Hopes to Teach 

 Conservation Through Nature-Study 



E. Laurence Palmer 

 Assistant Professor Rural Education, Cornell University 



For the benefit of those who know nothing of The Cornell Rural 

 School Leaflet, a brief introduction will not be amiss. This publica- 

 tion is issued by the Department of Rural Education of the New 

 York State College of Agriculture. It is designed to furnish part 

 of the subject matter for the New York State " Syllabus for Nature- 

 Study, Humaneness, Elementary Agriculture and Homemaking." 

 The work in Elementary Agriculture and Homemaking is carried 

 on by Home Projects, the subject matter for which is published in 

 a special series of manuals under the direction of the State Leader 

 of Junior Extension. The Cornell Rural School Leaflet furnishes 

 assistance in the teaching of Nature-Study and Humaneness. The 

 material published in the Leaflet furnishes a background for that 

 published in the Home Projects series and attempts by means of 

 definitely organized work to show how directly dependent rural 

 life and civilization is upon an appreciation of the forces present in 

 the rural environment. This material reaches about ten times as 

 many individuals as avail themselves of the Junior Home Project 

 Work. The responsibility as to the selection of a proper policy 

 is accordingly greater. 



Four numbers of the Leaflet appear each year. Of these, three 

 are children's numbers, the other being planned to help the teachers 

 primarily. One of each of these numbers is distributed to each 

 rural school in New York State without request. This number 

 becomes the property of the school library. Provision is made in 

 the teacher's number whereby additional copies may be secured 

 by the New York State rural teachers so that each child may be 

 supplied with a copy of the current children's numbers. The 

 demand has been so great that for the most part requests made for 

 the Leaflet by city teachers and by teachers outside the state can- 

 not be granted. Space does not permit further discussion of the 

 organization of the publication. 



We hear so much of the words "Conservation" and " Patriotism" 

 these days that an outline of the policy to be followed by the Leaflet 

 in teaching conservation and patriotism should prove interesting. 



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