The Raymer enterprise., 1912-10-10
APPEAL FOR NEW TEXT BOOK
Need Is Not Less Culture Than Here.
tofore, but for Achievement
Through Teaching.

1t Is time for those interested In
the education Of our farm boys and
girls-and who is MOTTO look little
more closely into the textbooks they
are expected to study at school. We
believe that there is great need Of q
change right here, that, in our rural
schools especially. practically all the
textbooks in general use have been
made with wrong ideal In view.
and that our schools have not been as
efficient as they might have been be-
cause the textbooks studied in them
have been SO generally Of the wrong
type, says the Progressive Farmer.
To put 1t in a sentence, the need
is for textbooks more directly related
to the life Of the people.
We need spelling-books in which the
farm boy will early become acquainted
with such words as nitrogen" pot.
ASH protein" etc., as we'll as such
common. everyday words as ''clevis."
"single-tree," "mattock." and other
ordinary farm terms which have
hardly had place at all in the spell.
ing-books used by all the millions and
millions Of farm children heretofore.
Nor are the spelling. book makers at
all alone in their attitude of indiffer-
ence or contempt Of the farm child's
needs. The arlthmetics have taught
all about banking and exchange and
English money and latitude and longi-
tude and the metric system of weights
and measures. and have told almost
nothing about how to compound q
fertilizer formula from certain guam.
titles of phosphoric acid and kalnit
and cottonseed meal or how to make
balanced ration for cattle from dlt.
ferent combinations of feeds.
The Biographies, too, have too often
laid emphasis on naming capitals and
bounding countries while neglectlng
to teach the principal products of
these countries and their commercial
importance.
The histories have laid undue EN-.
phasis upon wars and battles land
some Of them have given US some
very one.sided war history at that
and have under-emphasized the great
educational and Industrial achieve
ments Of the people.
There is special need Of a great ad.
vance in the matter Of teaching health
In the public schools. Until now We
have had physiologies that have
taught the number of bones In the
body and the names Of these bones.
and about the different kinds of mus.
cles and arteries and veins, but have
given little or no practical Instruction
about how to conserve health and how
to combat typhoid fever and malaria
and tuberculosis and hookworm dis.
ease and other maladies that have
slain thousands and even millions OF
people who might with proper instruc.
tion be alive today.
Let up have a new kind OF text.
books, textbooks that are related to
actual life and that train for the
mastery Of environment" In the fine
phrase Of Governor Mann of Virginia.
The need Is not for less Of culture
than heretofore, but for the achieve.
ment Of culture through teaching the
practical and useful rather than the
useless and non-practical things. In
the end the people rule In all these
matters. and II they don't get the kind
of textbooks they need. they should
have a reckoning with those respons.
ible for any perpetuatlon Of present
policies.