Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-08-28
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r,o basic industry of New Eainp-
.hiro agriculture, has gone backward
for the last half a century D"' '''
tho same period one-third Of her ma
tive incubation has emigrated to otner
states. IN tho last decade the native
white population has had 10 per oe"'
more deaths than births, though to'
nonrlntion from foreign parents nus
,,creased IS per cent I'm that ume' IS
the old New Hampshire stock TO vi,
and be replaced by more vlrile one %
foreign origin?
IN answer to this question ana III
order to provide a remedy Tor t'''9
condition. the New Hampshirec College
of Agriculture and the Mechanic Ar's
has begun the publication of a school
hulletiu. the first number of Which Is
devoted to showing why agriculture
should be taught in the schools.
Director Sandcrson. the writer of the
buletin. finds that the growth of the
citv hlgh-schooI was originally due to
ehe demand for public academies re-
placing those of private endowment
that should prepare for college those
young men who desired more education
than that afforded by the common
schools.
During the last few years, however
many of the best educators have ques-
toned whether the high school should
be merely preparatory school
and numerous cities have added
branches and the mechanic arts.
An analysis Of high-school attend
ance shows that in 1906 less than nine
per cent of the students in New Hamp-
shire schools We're in high schools OF
these. about one-third were preparing
for college, but hardly one-foHth, or
barely two per cent of the total ever
entered college Here, then, was the
result Of q system of high schools
whose main object and course of study
are declared to be the preparation OF
young men for college work.
The report of the United states COM
missioner OF education for 1908 says
that half Of the students in second
AIRY schools are studying Latin. alge-
bra. rhetoric and English literature;
forty per cent history and French;
and thirty-hve per cent geometry but
only about twelve per cent the science
OF physics, chemistry and physical geo.
graphy and physiology, while so fcW
arc taking zoology ana botany thai
they are not recorded. The same re-
port shows that the larger number of
high schools are in the smaller towns
OF less than 5000 population, where
there are nfty-one students per school
or III per teacher, while the city hiSn
schools have twenty-six students per
teacher
From these facts, Director Sander
son proceeds to controvert the argu-
ment that the ordinary high school
course Is the best for all students; and
shows that the training of tho 80 per
cent of the common school pupils who
never reach even the high school; and
of 9s per cent of the high school pupils
who never reach college, should not DO
primarily a preparation for something
that they do not reach.
He asks which is of more value to the
boy going back to the farm a know
legde of geometry on the principles OF
construction of farm buildings? Which
Will make him a better citizen, the
ability 10 read enough French to pass
an examination, or to read intelligently
and approximately the current litera-
turo which tells of methods of agri-
culture which have made failures or
surcesses for Othcrg and thus point