Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1904-02-25
Agricultural and Manual Training In
Public Schools.

Prof. J. c. Hardy, president of
the Mississippi Agricultural and
Mechanical College, in discussing
this subject in his annual report to
the legislature, said:
l agree with the State superintend-
eat OF education and with the State
Teachers Association in the opinion
that the elements of agricultural and
manual training should be taught in
the public schools of the State, and
that department of industrial peda-
gogy should be established here for
the purpose of training teachers for
this work. The State Teachers AS
sociation, at its meeting in Vicksburg
last May. passed the following recon-
mendation. which, in my opinion, pre-
sents exactly the organization that
Mississippi needs for putting in op-
Grafton the strongest school system OF
any State in the South: The Asso-
citation begs to present to the legisla-
ture that consideration and need for
the State Normal School as a separate
and distinct educational center, and
prays that honorable body in the eff
fort to make more efficient the means
Of education in the State, will estab-
lish such an institution for the train
Jag of teachers for the country
schools; that the Department OF Ped
agogy at the Industrial Institute and
College should be retained as a guar
antee that. our schools shall have
teachers of broad scholarship and
professional training; that a Depart
ment of Industrial Pedagogy should be
established at the Agricultural and
Mechanical College, where teachers
may be prepared to give instruction in
the elements of agriculture AID man.
ual training, and be brought thorough
ly in sympathy with every phase OF in
dustrial education"
Hon. L. D. Harvey, State superin-
tendent of public instruction in Wis
consin, says that from his study OF
the rural schools in this country, as
compared with those in Europe, he
became convinced that as regards in
struction in the principles OF agricul-
ture in grades of schools below the
agricultural colleges, we are far be-
hind foreign countries, both in the
scope of the work attempted and in
the extent to which. it has been or
ganized He does not think it feasi-
BILE at present to introduce the teach
ing of agriculture into our public
schools, owing largely to the lack OF
trained teachers. Whenever we have
in our rural schools he says, "a body
of professional trained teachers, who
hayc had specific instruction in this
subject, and modes Cf teaching it, We
may then hope to make some progress
in the rural schools, but until then, we
must look elsewhere for this instruc-
ton" DR.. A. C. True, director of the
Office of Experiment Stations, and
one of the most profound thinkers of
this country emphasizes the same
point, when he says: "At present, the
problem of obtaining properly quail
fed teachers is serious one Most
of the teachers now employed in the
elementary schools and in the public
high schools, lave been trained in lit
erary and scientific institutions, or in
technical schools, where no agricul-
ture has been taught 1t is only now
and then that teacher is found who
is in real sympathy with agricultural
education. Attention must, there
fore, be directed to the fitting of