The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-05-05
THEY DO NOT SUIT
Supt. Fairchild Wants More
Practical Text Books.
Would Change Those Used in
High Schools.
is TOO MUCH THEORY.
Suggest That Work in Botany
Should Be Different.
Use Problems That May Be Put
Into Use.

E. T. Fairchild, state Superintendent
of public instruction, is greatly inter
ested in plans to get more practical
te-t books to be used in the high
chools of Kansas. He wants text books
that do not deal entirely with theories
but which take up practical things
close at home for the students to
study. Fairchild is much interested in
putting additional vocational work IN
tie high schools and it is his idea that
all school text books, especially in the
high schools, should follow the plan de-
manded by all school teachers of the
arithmetic that all the problems pre-
sented are of things that concern the
active home life of the children.
''The present text books are all right
but they are for advanced work and do
not enter into the practical working of
the subject said Mr.. Fairchild. while
the books are written for boys and girls
of high school age, still they are 50
technical and so full of definitions that
often they are of no pratical use to the
children after they are through school.
1t is my idea that the schools should
give just as much practical work as it
is possible to give to the children so
that if they cannot go to college or take
other advanced work that they will
have received as much practical bene-
fit as the state can give them.
Change in Botany.
Il believe there is a real demand for
text books in botany that shall aban-
don, to degree at least, the conven-
tionaI treatment and that will use, as
illustrative material, the plant life
about us. 1t is possible to study with
profit the trees, the flowers, the wheat
and learn from them the great truths
of the vegetable kingdom. Any study
of botany that does not lead to a real
appreciation of nature and her works
fails in its most important functions,
to give the students eyes that really
see.
''It is all right for people to know
about the stamens and pistils and
rhodOdedrOnS and the different plant
families and species but after a child
learns all these they soon forget them
unless they. continue in that work
What the books ought to contain is
some generalities about the families
and habits of different plants and then
devote most of the space to a discus
sion of how to prune trees and shrubs,
how to take care of plants, how to
make CRAFTS of one variety on another,
how to spray, the tree and plant dis
eases, how to cultivate new varieties
and things of that kind. A little prac-
teal work along this line will fix the
teaching of the book firmly in the
ways rem amber the work they did in
school and how to do it and such work
will be valuable to a large percentage
of school children who will receive lit
tl4 or no technical education any,
where. They ought to receive the
rudim entary work along practical lines
and if they desired to continue they
could pick out the line of work they
wanted. The text books at present are
not written with this in view.
''It is now held that arithmetic
problems should be based upon the
actual activities that surround the
child. The operations of the house,
the shop, The store and the field should
all be drawn upon to furnish exam
pies. If this is true, why not apply
the same principles, so far as prac-
ticable, to botany and physics. These
subjects surely can be taught with
just as much thoroughness and accur-
acy of detail without an attempt to
present them on a purely college
basis. Perhaps we shall soon have
text books on these subjects written
with the real high school pupil in
view. The most notable example of
applied botany and physics teaching
that has come to my knowledge is be-
ing done in the high school at Me-
nominee, Wis. SO important and valu-
able has the work there become that
Superintendent Werks has been invit-
ed by the University of Chicago to
write two bulletins setting forth the
6o hoC doxTaInT1oH