The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1912-11-19

true, but it should be remembered that
our law permits boys and girls to en-
ter the teaching profession at the age
of sixteen years: and that the demand
for teachers in Oklahoma has been so
great that the immature and the un-
prepared have always been able to Sc
cure positions in our public schools.
To meet this condition it has seemed
advisable to maintain preparatory de-
partments in all of our normal schools.
We admit, that such conditions are far
from the ideal, but we should bear in
mind that educational ills are of such
a nature that they cannot be cured in
day"
Schools for Common People.
Z AS to the preparatory schools at
Claremore and Tonkawa, Superintend-
ent Wilson is of not quite so strong a
mind, though urging that they be re-
tanned. Schools are assets, not liza
bilities," he says. And here, as with
regard to the other institutions which
he so warmly defends, he says: in
other words, the problem of efficiency
here is only one of adjustment" He
speaks of the normals, secondary agri-
cultural schools, preparatory schools,
university A. & M. college, etc, as
essentially the schools OF the com
mon people, and in specific insist
ence upon the importance of the sec.
ondary agricultural schools at Broken
Arrow, Warner, Tishomingo, Lawton,
Helena and Goodwell speaks as fol-
lows:
another branch OF our system of
state schools that has been called into
question in our district agricultural
schools. 1t has been said that these
branch schools are not needed, that
they are an unnecessary burden upon
the taxpayer and that they have no
proper place in our scheme of educa-
ton. If this be true, it is very un-
fortunate that the movement in favor
Of such schools is growing SO rapidly
throughout all the agricultural states
in the Union Michigan, Wisconsin,,
Minnesota and Virginia have estab-
lished number of such schools.
Maine has appointed a legislative com
mission to report on ways and means
Of promoting agricultural education in
rural districts of the state; in 1911,
bill passed both houses o fthe Mis-
souri, legislature authorizing the es-
tablishment of county agricultural
schools throughout the state.
Universal in Land.
The state of Georgia has eleven dis,
trict agricultural schools supported by
the state; Mississippi has twenty
four; in 1910, Louisiana was support
ing seventeen and in 1911 she had
added eight more, making twenty y-five
in all Alabama has maintained four
teen of these schools during the past
few years and recently she has built
nine new ones. The movement is
abroad in the land and there is valid
reason for it. There is an ever in
creasing demand for that kind of edu-
cation which develops the particular
aptitudes and skill necessary to util-
ize, to the best advantage, the natural
resources of ones environment. In
most of our states, the great natural
resource is the soil. This is particu-
larly true in Oklahoma. Sixty-five per-
cent of her entire area is already in
farms She is prominently an agri-
cultural state. With us, therefore, GER
tainly there could be nothing more de-
sirable than thorough educational
equipment to insure a scientific culti-
vation OF the soil.
1T is said that in Oklahoma our land
values have increased 246 per cent
during the past decade. These values
will, no doubt, continue to increase
as a natural result of our future growth
in population, but it should be remem
bered that scientific agriculture is the
best promoter of land values and the
best possible asset an agricultural peo-
pie can have "A number of small
schools, located in different parts OF
the state and specifically designed and
equipped to encourage scientific culti-
vation OF the soil, is, therefore. one of
the very best investments state can
make"