Education, 4 



It is also objected that if you have 

 separate schools you break down the 

 present school system. It seems to ine 

 that in answer to this we would say that 

 separate work is a necessity for ade- 

 quate vocational training. We must 

 organize agriculture as a vocational sub- 

 ject of study by itself, related of 

 course to other subjects, but still a 

 thing somewhat by itself, if you are to 

 get real vocational results. And this 

 process logically will probably eventuate 

 in separate schools for agriculture. 

 Furthermore, I do not see that it is 

 necessary to separate these individual 

 agricultural high schoals from the public 

 school system. It seems to me that we 

 must maintain the integrity of our 

 public school system, but I do not believe 

 that the mere fact of establishing an 

 agricultural high school leads necessarily 

 to making that school something apart 

 from the public school system. 



It is also urged that separate schools 

 make a cleavage of social classes. On 

 this point my feeling is this. It is better 

 to have cleavage within the schools than 

 to have a cleavage between the schooled 

 who do not go into industries and the 

 unschooled who do. And that is precise- 

 ly what has taken place in the days gone 

 by. Those who went through the 

 high schools have largely gone into 

 professions- They have not gone into 

 industry. And boys who have gone into 

 industry have not been educated in the 

 high schools. 



If you put agriculture into the high 

 schools, you attract those who want to 

 go into this field of industry. Sooner or 

 later there may come some cleavage in 

 the school itself. If agricultural edu- 

 cation is introduced into the school, and 

 the school is made really vocational, 

 made really a finishing course, it will 

 of course be marked off necessarily from 

 other educational training and from 

 work of a general type. But I foresee 

 no serious danger from this. Vocations 

 do inevitably breed social classes. I 

 can't see that thorough training for 

 vocations, even in schools specially de- 

 voted to that purpose, is likely to in- 

 crease the tendency to stratification. 

 It will rather break it down because 

 each occupation will be dignified by 

 being intellectualized. 



And finally, I object to the idea 

 implied in the argument against separ- 

 ate schools of agriculture, that a voca- 

 tional course fails to educate a man 

 as well as to make a worker. I claim 

 that a well-balanced course of agri- 

 culture, properly taught, trains men, 

 and that it has definite educational 

 values. Hence such a course is still an 



L [May, 1910. 



educator of men as well as a trainer of 

 workers. The man is trained as a worker 

 and the worker is educated as a man. 

 In the same way in which a man educated 

 by his work, so a man may be educated 

 in the process of being trained for his 

 work. 



Let us then put agriculture into the 

 schools every where. Let us have separate 

 schools of agriculture wherever such 

 schools can be maintained. Lot us also 

 put agriculture into the regular work of 

 existing schools. Let us give every boy 

 and girl in the Commonwealth a chance 

 to prepare for farm life, and at least to 

 use the splendid materials offered by 

 agriculture in securing a broader outlook 

 upon life. 



Discussion. 

 Dr, David F. Lincoln asked for further 

 information concerning the proposed 

 Northampton school. 



Pres. Butterfield replied that he was 

 not familiar with all the plans, but it 

 was expected to open the school next 

 autumn. It is established as the result 

 of a provision made by Mr. Smith of 

 Northampton some sixty years ago. 

 After much delay the city has decided 

 to aid in organizing it, and a Director 

 has been chosen. 



It will be a school for youth who 

 desire to *?et practical work in horti- 

 culture and husbandary on the farm, 

 and at the same time have some regular 

 school studies with it. The aim of the 

 course will be to give general as well as 

 technical instruction. He stated that a 

 farm had been purchased on the out- 

 skirts of Northampton, and that it would 

 be a boarding school. He said that this 

 kind of a school would develop in a little 

 different way than an agricultural high 

 school, or any organization in a small 

 town. It will become a sort of semi- 

 agricultural college, though open to boys 

 as young,' perhaps, as fourteen years. 

 They will take up subjects not taken in 

 college. The length of the course is to 

 be four years, and a course of study has 

 been outlined in a pamphlet issued by 

 the Commission on Industrial Education. 

 Pres. Butterfield said he thought there 

 was need of such an institution in the 

 State. 



Pres. Butterfield referred also to the 

 Davis Bill, introduced into Congress by 

 Congressman Davis of Minnesota, which 

 provides $8,000,000 to be distributed to 

 States on the per capita basis. The Bill 

 calls for establishment of schools of agri- 

 culture and mechanic arts in each State 

 and under its provisions agricultural 

 schools can be provided in agricultural 

 sections, 



