Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-11-13
TEACHING AGRICULTURE
Commissioner Melvin OF The School
Board Speaks At Arundel
Academy.
THE GIRL A HOME MAKER.
But She Must Be A Bread Maker As
Well-The New Trend OF Edu-
cation.

Saturday was Agricultural Day at
the Anne Arundel Academy, at Millers-
vile, and prizes were awarded boys
and girls for the best work along this
| line.
There was a large and enthusiastic
attendance of the country folk inter-
ested in the new trend of education
and the teaching of agriculture in the
| school.
Mr.. George t, Melvin, of the County
School Board, was among those pres
ent from Annapolis. and made an adj
| dress.
Mr.. Melvin spoke as follows:
| Professor Burdette, Trustees of the
Academy, Y oung Ladies and Gentle
men:
This is an occasion which delights
me. 1t is a great pleasure to accept
Professor Burdette's invitation to be
present with you, and to take part in
these exercises. This is the kind of
school event which reflects some
thing of the real val of our public.
as we'll as private educational system,
and it is an event which trust to
see speedily and widely followed all
over our county and all over our coun-
try
AS one of the County School Com
missoners, have for a number of
years been deeply interested in the
newer phase of elementary education,
in the teaching of agriculture in the
public schools, and in the persistent
and effective directing of the attention
of our boys and girls to the useful and
the practical side of the common
school course. Instruction in the
branches taught in the public schools
and in the Anne Arundel Academy,
which has a place of its own in the
county system, should 90 hand in hand
with the things of the farm and the
home for the true end of Ill our work,
as school officials, is to make our local
schools of the highest and broadest
use to the farms and the homes of our
county.
Now, it is a matter of some salts
faction to me back in the years when
the teaching of elementary agricul-
ture in the public schools was thing
not seriously considered anywhere,
our Board declared that it should be
made part of the course in the
Anne Arundel public schools. We
thought it was eminently a proper
subject for our schools; that its teach
ing was as easy and as practical as
other recognized studies, and from
that time, we have done whatever we
could to prepre the way for a read
justment of school affairs so that the
boys who came into the school houses
from the farms would find there help
and encouragement and inspiration for
what so intimately concerned them
selves and the families they repre-
sented. And as cooking and sewing
and the household arts are peculiarly
the province of all our girls, my fell
low Commissioners and myself have
forwarded,as we could and as oppor-
tunity and a careful Management of
our trust offered. the Reaching of
domestic science. 1t is true, per-
haps, that so far we have not been
able to do much, but, at least we
have taken cognizance of conditions
and have established a ground work
for what is undoubtedly the proper
and most promising development of
our school system in the years to
come.
This new trend of education has a
solid foundation. Many times the
schools are assailed because of "theo-
ries" and 'fads," and in some in
stancs, perhaps, not without a degree
of truth or halftruth. But theory"
AS a term of reproach--and "fad"
do not apply to the union of free
schooling with the farm and the home.
Some years ago President Roosevelt
appointed Country Life Commission,
body of experienced, trained and en-
thusiastic gentlemen of high standing
in their several professions or avoca-
tions, and including the greatest author
ties on farming. and these gentlemen
made most thorough and an admir-
ably critical study of all the chief
problems and conditions and tenden-
cies of rural life-of things as they are
and as they ought to be in the country
districts where the food for the mil
lions of Americans must be raised
and where we must look largely for
the manhood and the womanhood of
the morrow. Of course, it was to be
expected that diverse views and wide
ly conflicting opinions and sugges-
tions would be brought out by the
Commission. 1t reported this to be
the case as to most of the leading
subjects which engaged its attention,
with one exception. "As to the ne
cessity Of redirecting the rural
schools, T" there was practical unani-
nifty.
The Commissioners referred to the
remarkable similarity of phrase with
which this subject had been discussed
in all parts of the country at the sit
tings of the Commission. Everywhere
was found demand that education
have relation to living. that the schools
should express the daily life, and that
in the rural districts they should edu-
cate by means Of agriculture and coun-
try life subjects. They were held
largely responsible for ineffective
! farming, for lack of ideals, and it was