The Florida agriculturist., 1907-08-28
Industrial Education.

cultural states generally are quite as
different as can be imagined from the
conditions in manufacturing states
like Massachusetts, The Iowa farm
boy and girl has this great advantage,
that on the farm they learn to do a
vast number of things that the chill
dren of the artisan have no chance to
learn; nor do the latter have any
chance to learn things in the line OF
their future occupation, as does the
boy on the farm.
For example, the farm boy knows
about carrying in corn cobs and doing
chores. He learns to ride, to shoot,
to tell the truth; all of which is in
itself something of an education. He
becomes acquainted with the ground
squirrel and the gopher, the ways and
habits of hogs, cattle, sheep, horses,
and poultry He learns how to hitch
and unhitch his fathers team, to plow,
to drive the reaper, the mower, the
hay loader, the manure spreader. He
learns how to use hammer, saw, chisel,
and plane He becomes acquainted
with the nature Of timber.
In short, he has quite an education
before he goes into an industrial
school, He may take a short course
at college or attend a Judging school.
He learns a great deal at the state
fair and the county fair. He may not
have nearly as much book learning
as the boy in the manufacturing town,
but he has a good deal more of real
education; for the book-learned man
ha o111oo4o1 o. If
but an educated fool; we have seen
some of them. The man who has kept
his eyes and ears open, and has had to
do it, has become very we'll educated
in some particular lines
In short, the artisans son even in
the industrial school has the oppor-
tunity to learn why things are done
before he has a chance to attempt to
do them; while the farmer boy learns
how to do things, and the object of
the school for him is to learn why
them better. Hence the industrial ed
ucation problem, vast as it is, is really
much simpler in regard to the farm
boy than in regard to the son Of the
artisan.
Just how the farm boy can be walked
I'D so that he really wants to know
why things are done, and thus be able
to do them a great deal easier and to
better advantage, is the real problem;
in other words, how to convince him
that farming is not mere manipula-
I ton of the soil or its crops with tools.
but such manipulation as will meet
the requirements of the plan and thus
enable it to do the very best possible
under the conditions and circum-
stances; how to so feed the calf or
the pig or colt that it will make the
best growth and Development; how to
so handle himself that he will become
a man Of the widest intelligence and
therefore the most capable Of perform
ing his duties as citizen-this is the
real problem in the agricultural states
The frst-c1ass agricultural paper can
do much; but the real va1ue of an
agricultural paper is not so much in
what it does for the farmer as what
it does for his boy It cannot do
everything, however. It is simply
one of the great agencies in promot-
ing idustria1 education. and through
industrial education developing the
best manhood in the state It is a
great thing to make two blades o1
grass grow where one grew before
It is much greater thing to double
the intelligence, the capacity, and the
usefulness Of the boy or girl.