The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-04
EDUCATORS DISCUSS
 SCIENTIFIC TRAINING
By HERvEY w. LAIRD.

efficient in it's sphere as the city school is in its. sF
 "The next point to be raised is How shall this campaign be made? My sue- gestion would be through the department or agriculture. Let our able and enthis- iastic commissioner organize his forces. calling into use the several congressjonaI district agricultural schools. and a cam paign can be waged for agricultural ed ucation that will stir this state in a way that has not been known before"
 Mir. Thigpen's Opinion.
 G. H. Thigpen. who has charge of tho Fourth District school at Sylacauga. in addition to advocating compulsory edu- cation stands for longer school term. better supervision and mora local sun- port. His letter follows:
 First, should say in order to produee good results you should have suitably equipped buildings with healthy sur roundings I am great believer in de- yeloping the material side of teaching aa IL IS in this way the mental side is best developed. But, too the irnnrovenoan+ should not stop with nice buildings. etc The standard of country teachers should be raised as regards ability to teach I'm order to instruct you must have a full hnoWleage or the subject in hand, and only when the teacher has command op the subject and the pupil is he eouipped to
 but even teacher with these quali- Ilcatlons can accomplish little In ina snort terms allowed. A broad object can barely be squeezed into a small snace No more can broad ideas be imparted In such short time. The terms should bv all means be nine months in length.
 And another important element in this improvement is the competent county supervision. It is as essential for country schools to be superintended as for the city schools.
 Last, but not least. is the enactment or law on our statute books compell- ing all children within the school age to regular attendance upon these schools President Sargent of the Sixth district school at Hamilton stresses the import ance of all the teachers Tn all the schools having a practical knowledge of agri- culture so that they can present it tn- telligently. He also emphasizes the im- portance of demonstration work even in the common schools saying.
 What we need today is education es- pecially among the farming class of peo- pie, Our agricultural college at Auburn and each of the district agricultural schools are doing great work, but these schools can never hope to reach the masses, and the only means by which
 
 public schools.
 'We have agriculture taught in the public schools, but to teach 1t properly the teachers need to know more about agriculture One of the great duties of teachers of agricultural schools is to at- tend teachers institutes and other teach- CTS gatherings and teach the teachers many little practical lessons, in graft ing. budding, pruning and many things that will help to stimulate the pupils.
 "Each one of the nine district agricul- tural schools should have few of tho very best breeds of hogs, chickens, cat- tie and sheep This will do a great deal to get the farmers to take greater in- terest in live stock and improve same. Each school should also have improved farm machinery and be ever ready to teach the farmers economic value of same.
 'The farmers today have very great opportunities in the rural free delivery as he can not only keep up with the very best methods of farming, but also cur rent events and there is not any excuse for him not being as well informed as his city neghbor."