The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-18


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the complete blending of our polyglot
elements. 1t has been and will ever be
the great antiseptic against national
stagnat ton and decay. English think
ers like Mr.. William Mather assigned
the greatest influence on American
to the general education
of the American boy derived from their
common schools. The fundamentals OF
lose their value for training the hu-
man mind
Must Specialize in Education
But times have changed. and the day
for general education alone has passed
Just in manufacturing processes the day
for the methods of "mere common
sense" have given way to the methods
of expert skill and science. THE 10,
600 little red schoolhouses at the coun-
try cross roads and their successors .
says Professor Bailey of Cornell, have
never taught the business of farming. .
But we know today that the business
of farming can be taught in the schools.
We know that culture and utility can be
united. and the joining of these two
hemispheres of life is the educational
problem of the day.
There Is no occupation in the world
today that calls for more ability and
JUG DIolliSy u dlIllllE, lHuuSlTN anu
adaptability than farming. 1t is a
mans job. To plow and SOW and reap
without understanding is no more real
farming than cutting mans leg off
with an AK is real surgery"
No longer is the book farmer sneered
at, but rather is the trained expert the
accepted guide and teacher of the farm
ing CLASS Agriculture, today, is a
science, the revelation having beer
hpn II l., ,,,1 Il
lege and experiment station established
some 80 years ago, BY their painsta
ing observation of facts and careful and
accurate Interpretation of the laws ol
nature on an enormous scale, there has
become available an immense body o1
precise information concerning thf
principles that govern soil fertility
plant life and animal life, the three car
dinal elements in the business of farm.
Ing. Moreover, this body of knowledg,
has been gradually reduced to pedagog-
ical form until today there exists quite
an adequate amount of agricultural tex
and literature for use in our common
schools
Alabama Sets an Example
Granting the need and desirability OF
introducing industrial education in oul
common schools, many practical ques
tions suggest themselves. First, shal
we have separate vocational schools, OF
shall agriculture and mechanic and do
mestic science be introduced as ele.
ments in the courses of the entire com.
mon school system? Forcible argr.
ments are presented on either side
Alabama was the first state in the unior
to establish a system of congressional
agricultural schools, there being al
present nine SUCH institutions in thu
state. They have already done excel,
lent work and are rapidly becoming the
type of industrial school for which the,
We're originally intended. However
recognizing as | do the value of the
separate agricultural school, the weight
of argument in the matter as a whole
seems to lie entirely in favor of the
combined or cosmopolitan school. The
accessibility of the vocational school tc
children right at their own doors is a
highly important matter. What does
it mean for the future of the country
it has been asked, when boys and girls
who advance beyond the gramma,
grades have to go into town to get theii
high school education? At the most
impressionable age they are trained in
the habits of the town. The fundamen-
tai duties of the common school will be
to enable the child to sleep in his own
bed and eat at his own breakfast table
until the age of Is and yet receive an
adequate education. This means thai
the school should teach both Industrial
subjects. as we'll as those subjects that
interpret to the children the beauty
and the inspiration of Gods great out
DOORS
Course of Study
The subject matter for a practical
definite course of industrial training
lies Immediately at hand. The princi-
pies of agriculture, horticulture, fiori-
culture, carpentry. basket making, all
forms of nature study, habits of birds
and plants and fish, why plants grow
how plants grow-all these can be
taught all being of infinite interest and
of direct practical value.
AID to accomplish the greatest good