Newark post., 1913-06-04

lliiildlltllldt dSIlCNllItLt, DiCcitS VI
live stock, poultry, farm crops,
feeding, horticulture, laboratory
work in pruning and spraying, soils
fertilizers, farm management, home
decoration, woodwork, forge-work,
farm surveying and mechanical
drawing.
The girls, who do all the cooking,
cleaning and houseWork, are taught
part of the boys course, but are
given in place Of part of it instruc-
ton in sewing, textile study, bas-
kerry, cooking, food supply, house
hold hygiene, dressmaking, millin-
cry, household management, home
nursing, dietetics, household dec
OF alton, canning and preserving,
and similar work.
Each school has worked out its
own problems but in general the
plan is to admit pupils who have
passed what would be about the
fifth grade, and that the boys shall
be at least fourteen, the girls thir-
teen years old. Each pupil is sup
posed to do about nine hours work
a week and to pay six dollars and
a half month besides. This COW
ers all expenses except clothing,
and as the students make the cloth.
ing for the most part, the cost is
very low. Some students by hard
work, or because of extra ability,
are excused from money payments.
The farms vary in size from 24O to
315 acres. Pupils go to the school
at the beginning of the course and
stay there most of the time for the
four years.
The boys average about four
years older than those i'll city high
schools. They probably do a great
deal more than the required nine
hours a week of farm work and
probably work actively when in the
field. With from one to two hun
dred pupils to school a good deal
of work can be done and the re-
ports show that most schools Pctual-
ly cultivate about seventy five acres
each; producing cotton, corn, hogs.
and other standard crops. A mill
tary style Of dress is used in all the
schools. which reduces cost of cloth
ing and settles many problems for
those without much money. The
course Of study prepares bays for
the freshman class i'll the state I'M
iyersity and the girls for the soph-
omore class at the Normal and In
dustrial College.
Socially there are many features
Of college life. Baseball thrives,
there are school bands and orches-
tras, and as the schools are co-edu-
cational there must be good social
life under the direction of the men
and women who are in charge,
about seven instructors to a school,
Of course much of the work is ex-
perimental; it is a new system, de-
vised by sincere lovers Of humanity
to rescue a great population from
the traditional ignorance of class.
Young men and women gradu-
ating from such institutions are
ready for practical life. They are
not "babes in the woods if they
marry young, and they can use
their hands and heads to advantage.
1t seems to me that four years in
such an institution would be worth
a dozen years in the ordinary high
school. A knowledge Of how to get
a living, how to care for husband
and family, how to make home
pleasant, seems worth much more
than the classical course. And best
of all, the boys and girls will not
need to leave school in order to get
started so that by the time they are
twenty-one years old they can earn
living. Georgia is wiser in this
than Delaware and other States,
and in giving to its poor but ambi-
tious young people an opportunity
for practical education which will
put them on an equality, not only
in earning power but in culture at
it's best, with all other children, she
is doing a wonderful work. The
modern high school course of most
states is a trihing, impractical
course which by educating the
memory chiefly and the hands lit
tie, is developing the dreamy and
impractical sides of human nature.
, To those who have condemned
those of us who do not believe in
the classical course | commend a
consideration of the Agricultural
High Schools Of Georgia. A com
monwealth counted among the least
in educational perfections has set
an example many years ahead OF
Delaware.
Iron Hill O. r. Washburn.