626 
Ctriiediomt, 
Agriculture in the District 
School. 
Staid it he Taught Ttae? 
An Important Subject Thought¬ 
fully Discussed. 
Little Encouragement for the 
Project. 
The Proper Teachers Wanting. 
Too Many Studies Now. 
Many Hints and Suggestions. 
FROM DR. T. H. HOSKINS. 
In the first place, this is by no means so sim¬ 
ple a question as it seems to many. It would 
be of no use to enact laws requiring instruction 
to be given in the common schools, in branches 
relating to agriculture, so long as there is no 
supply of teachers able to impart such instruc¬ 
tion. One great trouble in all our common 
schools, even the best, is the incompetency of 
the teaching force. In the rural districts, the 
teachers, as a body, are practically only book- 
holders. Their function, aside from keeping 
order, is in ascertaining whether the pupil 
has rightly memorized the lesson. In arith¬ 
metic, it is somewhat more than that, since 
sum-doing is a practical operation, which 
necessitates that the lesson should not only be 
memorized, but in some degree also under¬ 
stood. 
I know that nearly every school teacher who 
may read this will feel like repelling with in¬ 
dignation, the unfair charge, as all may 
think it, which I have made. But every can. 
did one among them, would admit in private 
conversation, where class feeling did not pre¬ 
vail, that he or she knew a great many teach¬ 
ers who came into my category. They would 
excuse it by saying that teachers were too 
poorly paid, and that we ought not to expect 
the best work for such poor pay. Here I am 
heartily with them, and I lay it down as a 
principle that if we expect to have the ele¬ 
ments of the sciences of agriculture taught in 
our common schools, we must be prepared to 
pay for it. And here, too, comes up another 
unsurmountable obstacle to the realization of 
popular agricultural instruction, —will the tax- 
paying farmers sustain it ? One thing I know 
for certain, they will not in Vermont, or I 
think in any other New England State, where 
they can control the action of the Legislature. 
The whole weight of the farming influence is 
thrown against any improvement whatever 
in our public schools, and it is only in villages 
that our schools are improving, or, indeed not 
retrograding. Now, how are you going to do 
anything, in this condition of things, to intro¬ 
duce elementary agriculture as a study, into 
our schools,? The problem is practically the 
same as that^of a man lifting himself by his 
boot straps. There are farmers, a few in al¬ 
most every town, [who' would willingly be 
taxed for better schools, but there are no men 
anywhere, who more thoroughly understand 
the impossibility of carrying a vote in a sin¬ 
gle town where the farm vote is a majority, to 
improve the teaching in our public schools, if 
it will cost money to do it. 
Now, therefore, is there any possible way to 
accomplish this very desirable end, except 
over the heads of the farmer vote? I think 
not. We may say what we will against the 
money power, against the influence of cities, 
and all that; but when it comes to education 
it has got to be forced upon the illiterate 
classes—agricultural and mechanical alike— 
THE BUBAL MEW-¥@BKER. 
SEPT 22 
by the vote and power of the towns where 
the worth of knowledge is better understood, 
and by the strength of men of both money 
and education. 
I have included the mechanical class as be¬ 
ing a part of the inert opposition to school 
improvement, but there is an element amoDg 
the working class in towns that will vote for 
schools,—the non-tax-paying part. The non¬ 
tax-paying proletarian will go as far as any, for 
that which will cost him nothing, may give 
him some work, and may benefit his children. 
To this class may be added many skilled me¬ 
chanics of the better sort. Then, if we are 
to accomplish anything in the direction, so 
far as States are concerned, it must be begun 
by the improvement of our normal schools 
to the degree that a thorough grounding in 
the elements of the natural sciences related to 
the industrial arts shall be made obligatory in 
their course of instruction. This will have to 
be done by the city and village vote, and by 
the influence upon legislation which can be 
brought to bear by those who strongly feel 
the necessity of progress in this line. When 
by that action we have provided a source 
of suitable teaching capacity, instruction 
in these elements must be forced upon 
the rural schools by State legislation. 
An example of how this may be done is fur. 
nished in the'legislation which compels in¬ 
struction in the evil effects of alcoholic drinks 
in many of our States. The farmers have 
not fought this, because it did not threaten any 
increase in the cost of the schools. But it is 
of no use to deceive ourselves with the notion 
that scientific elementary instruction will not 
require a very considerably higher grade 
of teaching ability than any now to be found 
in our rural schools, and neither men nor 
women will fit themselves for such work un¬ 
less they are suitably paid for it. 
This brings me to another point—the more 
thorough establishment of a teaching pro¬ 
fession in the country, to take the place of the 
present hand-to-mouth supply of instructors in 
our rural schools. We shall never have such 
teachers until we pay them better; but when 
we do pay them better we may well require 
that they shall make themselves masters and 
mistresses of their work; shall fit themselves 
really to teach, not out of a book, but out of 
their heads, the things they are paid to teach. 
There is a world-wide difference between a 
book-holder and a genuine teacher. The latter 
has at command a power of illustration, an 
ability to vivify the subject under considera¬ 
tion, which will awaken the minds of his or her 
pupils, and so interest them that study will be¬ 
come a pleasure instead of a drudgery. But, 
alas! all this will cost money, and how can the 
people who know nothing of the real value of 
knowledge be induced to pay for it ? 
Orleans Co., Vt. 
FROM PROF. W. J. BEAL. 
The'success of the school depends mainly on 
the kind of teacher who presides. Students 
will be most interested in what the teacher un¬ 
derstands and likes the best. In this direction 
the teacher awakens enthusiasm, in another he 
checks all enthusiasm. I know district schools 
and graded schools where most of the pupils 
sing and make a success of it. The teacher is 
a good singer; he likes to sing and enjoys 
teaching his pupils. Others mate little at¬ 
tempt in this direction and singing is seldom 
heard in their schools. If the patrons of the 
school in any neighborhood want their pupils 
to learn to sing they must first secure a teach 
er who is a good singer. This illustrates the 
requirements to be sought in a teacher if 
anything pertaining to agriculture in its 
broadest sense is to be taught in the common 
schools. Not one teacher in 10,000 would know 
what to do or how to do it, were he to attempt 
much in this line. We must get the teachers 
before we try to train the pupils. 
I will now name some of the greatest de¬ 
fects noticed in young persons who enter, or 
try to enter, this college. If they are not well 
prepared in arithmetic, it is usually no fault 
of their former teachers. A good many are 
poor spellers and have not studied long enough 
to habitually use a dictionary in cases of 
doubt as to the proper spelling of a word. In 
history there seems to^be little trouble; in 
penmanship many are defective. A good 
many are poor readers; their vocabulary is 
small; their eyes move along the lines slowly; 
they can hardly read a common article in a 
newspaper or a book understandingly, much 
less can they read it in such a manner that 
others will understand it. They have read 
but little; they have not associated very much 
with people who use good language. 
A large majority are poorly prepared in 
grammar. By this I mean to include the 
faculty of con ectly expressing ideas. Many 
of the pupils have neglected or tried in every 
way to shirk “writing compositions” as they 
call it. This is often partly the fault of the 
teachers. The pupils are not led along in an 
easy way, by descriptions of objects; they do 
not practice telling what they can in writing 
in response to stories told them or read them. 
Many are poor observers of what is all 
the time going on around them. They have 
gotten into the habit of learning everything 
from books or from persons and do not go to 
the fields, the woods, the gardens and the 
streets to glean thoughts. 
A large number of persons entering here 
are ignorant of many common operations in 
farm work. They do not know how to use a 
hoe, a rake, an axe, a spade, or a pitchfork, 
to say nothing of using a scythe or a hammer 
or a saw. If they have shown little natural 
mechanical ingenuity, they have, very likely, 
been able to get rid of attempting much work 
that required skill of the hands, and their 
parents have let them do so or set them to 
doing what they liked to do, or could do best— 
just as a man would be set to work in a large 
machine shop, at the present time. He 
would very likely learn something about 
a few kinds of work, but would long 
remain ignorant of most kinds. Many 
are clumsy and go to work in an awkward 
manner. They have not been shown by a sk ill- 
ful person. They have not studied the best 
manner of doing things. Very few can prop¬ 
erly adjust the lines of a harness for a span of 
horses. They do not know how to fix a plow 
so it will do good work. They cannot load 
hay. They cannot build a good stack of hay 
or wheat, shear a sheep well or tie up the 
fleece properly. They cannot drive up along 
and back up a wagon in the right place at a 
warehouse. They cannot take up a tree 
properly, or set .it out well. They cannot 
run a hand seeder in the garden. They can¬ 
not set out a patch of strawberries well. The 
more of these operations that are understood 
by pupils, the more rapid and satisfactory 
will be th eir progress in the agricultural 
college. True, some of these things are 
taught here and in some of them 'students get 
a little practice, but it is too much to expect 
of any agricultural college to take students 
and give them the elementary training in these 
things. Suppose your teacher of common 
schools, can perform a large number of the 
above named.and kindred operations common 
to farm life. If the directors are willing he 
can devote some time to considering these 
things in his school. At least he can set his 
students to thinking and discussing them by 
word or pen. 
Many of the students who come to us have 
wrong notions of property, especially in re¬ 
ference to property in melons, fruit and the 
like. They have heard their fathers or the 
hired men tell of “cooning” and think it one 
of the essentials to manhood. Here is a grand 
work for the preparatory schools—a work 
which will aid in successfully completing a 
course in college and in making good citizens 
after leaving the class room. 
Most pupils who come here, come without 
knowing how to study. They have slack, 
irregular habits. They study and work and 
play, in season an$ out of season. They 
work and study without a plan. They do 
not understand the commonest rules for pre¬ 
serving health. They do not regard the hours 
for sleep, eating, or bathing and do not know 
that it does much harm to go with wet feet 
or to sit up very.late nights. 
Ag’l College, Lansing, Mich. 
FROM CHARLES W. GARFIELD. 
The very best] possible foundation for en¬ 
trance into an agricultural college is through 
tuition in what are known as the common 
school branches, and as a preparation for the 
agricultural college course I wouldn't give a 
fig for all the elementary agriculture that can 
ever be given in the common rural schools. 
The need is for more thorough drill in read¬ 
ing, spelling, writing, arithmetic, the ele¬ 
ments of history, natural philosophy and 
physiology. The grammar will be absorbed 
if the associations are good. It does not need 
a college education to teach men to use terse 
English, but the preliminary training in the 
“three R’s” has a great deal to do 
with a boy’s future business methods. I 
don’t believe in lugging too many kinds 
of things into the common school curriculum 
I do wish the teachers everywhere knew 
more of everything. I wish the girls and 
boys could be given the best of opportunities 
to learn by absorption from teachers; but this 
necessitates “full teachers.” The course of 
study is of little importance compared with 
the character of the teachers. I sometimes 
query if I shall send my boy to a rural school 
at all in preparation for his agricultural 
college course. I certainly would not, if it 
were not for the training which a boy gets 
from rasping against his fellows. I do wish, 
however, that a respect for public property 
and the property of others, might be engen¬ 
dered by rendering school premises more at¬ 
tractive and worthy of respect. If boys were 
taught to care for the school-house and its 
attributes, and love the ^premises, they would 
not be so ready to sling stones at a neighboring 
house the moment it is vacated. There are 
some important things to teach, that are not 
m books and that cannot be said to subserve 
agriculture but rather manhood. 
Kent Co., Mich. 
FROM OLIVER HOWARD. 
I am very doubtful about introducing the 
study of agriculture into our schools, be¬ 
cause the tendency is to encourage the study 
of too many branches of learning in our 
schools already. Our children are set too 
many tasks in the school-room until they 
have small enthusiasm for the school any 
way. I have long been aware that there are 
serious faults in our school system; nor do I 
see the exact way to overcome those faults. 
I think many teachers will agree with me 
that in the rush to pursue the higher 
branches of learning, very few of our chil¬ 
dren are taught to add columns of figures 
quickly and accurately. What do loga¬ 
rithms signify to my boy if he can’t add? 
But, in my considerable experience with 
schools, and pupils, and teachers, I have 
sometimes had a strong feeling that the true 
way to make great men and women is too 
slow and expensive for this rushing, prac¬ 
tical ago. At present we cram pupils in 
place of setting them to thinking, forgetting 
that if we start the child right he will keep 
on in the right course, because he loves it. 
My recipe is as follows: 
1. Secure a real lover of nature for teacher. 
2. Give him not too many pupils, to man¬ 
age as he sees fit. 
3. He will often'desert the school-room and 
lead his pupils “into the wilderness.” Often 
from the book of nature he will teach as. 
tronomy, geology, botany, zoology, etc., etc., 
and we shall have a race of observers, loving 
disciples of nature growing up, who will, by 
the verj constitutions of their minds, be 
ready to make the journey of life in any 
direction, practical agriculture included. 
Weld Co., Col. 
FROM E. P. POWELL. 
My objections to the average district schoo 
course of study are so total that I hire teacher 
at my house to do what we cannot ourselves 
do for the children. I believe children should 
be taught at the very outset science—meaning 
by that knowledge of the earth under foot, the 
air over head, life on the earth—and their own 
personal relation to life and things and their 
physical and intellectual make-up involving 
special responsibilities. My boys do not have 
a geography and grammar and spelling book, 
but they begin with geology after they have 
picked up reading—say when they are about 
seven or eight years of age. Before that time 
I aim only to teach them to observe nature, 
answering all questions conscientiously. They 
are by that time able to name and describe 
every tree and bush on my lawns or in our ad¬ 
jacent forests. If it is an ash; why? So they 
learn to know why each thing is as it is. 
- At seven or eight I give them books like 
Shaler’s elementary geology, Higgiuson’s 
history of the United States, and a physical 
geography. These are not dealt out to them 
as tasks, but they are their delight. Science 
dealing with things, animals, trees, etc., is al¬ 
ways delightful. 
At eight or nine years tliey are all furnished 
a drawing teacher, which involves all neces¬ 
sary lessons in using the fingers for writing. 
Drawing is always a delight and every child 
in the world should be taught it. The edu¬ 
cation of the hand and of the brain should go 
together. After geology I give them zoology, 
or animal life, and botany, with horticulture 
or vegetable life. This prepares them for 
biology in general. 
I have no right to space in the Rural to carry 
out this criticism farther. But you see what 
I mean. Now can we graft on or involve 
preparation for agricultural colleges? Yes, by 
a revolution involving my plan of work. 
But what can be done with a district school 
under the care of a girl who is hardly trained 
to wash a dish clean, I don’t see. Our average 
district school is a representative of an out¬ 
grown system of a dead past. 
Oneida Co. N. Y. 
ADVANCED COUNTRY SCHOOLS 
FOR FARMERS. 
L. E. BENTON. 
For some time it has been on my " mind that 
in connection with the way our country 
schools are managed, we might make an in¬ 
novation that would be a great help to the ad¬ 
vancement of the education of farmers and 
the progress of farming as a profession. The 
plan I refer to, is to have in each township, or 
in any large neighborhood that is sufficiently 
populated to support it, a special winter school 
for the older and more advanced scholars who 
are in need of better advantages. Most of our 
