Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-07-11
FARMING m THE SCHOOLS.

FARMING IN the SCHOOLS.
The suggestion that instruction Ii
agriculture should be made part O.
the curriculum of country schools ha:
not been received with enthusiasm b!
rountry residents and patrons of those
of the ordinary schoolma'am to teach
fErming and the science Of farming ano
has treated the suggestion after a jocu-
lar fashion. He is right in his surmise
that an agricultural addition to the
present rural school course would ac-
complish little. The average farmer
boy is more fitted to give such instruc-
ton to the average teacher than to re-
ceive 1t at her hands.
The suggestion has its root In the In
creased interest in and attention being
paid to the rural schools. The move
ment to improve these schools is wide
spread and insistent, and while respon-
sible for some impractical theorizing
and suggestion is certain to result ben
eficially. or all the wonderful educa-
tionai progress of recent years the
country school has not demanded or
received Its full share. Educators In
the United States and Canada alike
have only recently turned their united
efforts toward the little red schoolhouse
in the country and its ccngener in the
villages and minor towns. Heretofore
they have been too busy with city
schools and colleges.
The great lacks in district and VIII
lage schools is system and adequate
supervision. To remedy this and en-
courage higher school development,
Connecticut has passed q law permit
ting two or more towns having to-
gesher not less than twenty-five and
not more than fifty teachers to unite
for the purpose of employing a super
Intendent of schools. The state will
pay one-half the salary Of the super
4ntendent. With certain necessary mod
ifications and changes this law might
be made applicable to much smaller
towns than are contemplated in Con-
necticut and even to thickly settled
country communities.
In Canada consolidation of the rural
schools has been in progress for some
time and here the problem of scientific
teaching along agricultural lines seems
l6 have been solved by plan which
Supplies practical course under prop
Or supervision. Two or three acres OF
land are to be provided for the purpose,
adjacent to the most important school
in seven districts in each county. A
county council will then engage gradu-
ates of the Guelph Agricultural College
to serve as travelling instructors. Upon
the day appointed for the visit of the
Instructor, the boys from the seven
schools In the district will meet at the
central school to be taught the elements
and its relation to agriculture and hor-
ticulture, and the physics and chenis-
try of the SOIL The instruction will be
Eolidiy practical. Each pupil will come
in close contact with the actual work.
The plan Is to have the instructors visit
one district day. and thus cover each
county in a week. The different schools
will be permitted TO exhibit the results
of their work at the county fairs, and
prizes will be donated 10 the schools
making the best showing. For the benz
eft Of the girls, a course in household
economics has been arranged, in every
way as practical as the agricultural in
struction: and there will be similar
of schools with one COM
mon training center.
This is so evidently practical and 80 |
entirely. feasible as to commend itself |
to all reasonable and progressive farm !
ers. It has In it much Of the benefits |
of the agricultural college, besides hav-
ing an excellent effect toward tying the
boys to the farm by localizing their in
terests in their own neghhorhood. Why |
not try something like this in Iowa?