Charlevoix county herald., 1920-09-03
1000 war MEN
STUDY FARMING
Disabled Ex-service Men Placed
in Agricultural Training in
Various Institutions.
1900 READY FOR COURSE
Many Of the Men Are llllterate and
Must Be Given a Course In Ele-
mentary Work to Fit Them
for the Farm Course.

! Neutrality-suspicious. than 1000 dis
abled ex-service men have been d.
rectly placed In agricultural training
and in addition there are probably 500
engaged In prevocational work pre-
| paratory to a course In agricultural
training. Perhaps 1900 more have
been approved for the course.
Special placement has been suggest
ed and is being sought for tuberculous
men In hospitals and sanatOria.
| The men approved for agricultural
training may be classed into three
| general groups:
| (a) Men who went into the war
from college or high school, and, re-
turning, have entered the agricultural
colleges.
(b) Men with an eighth grade
preparation who are admitted into
subcollege two-year courses, Smith
| Hughes or other schools Of agricul-
| ture.
(c) Men of elementary grade, rang
ing from illiterate to the seventh or
| eighth grade, who Of necessity must
| have prevocational instruction In order
that they may receive scientific train
Ing intelligently and benefit to the
greatest degree.
| The first and second groups have
| given the federal board and the insti-
| tutlOns to which they have been rec
commended very little trouble, as they
enter the classes II sent to the institu-
| ton at the beginning Of the school
year or a term, and II not they fire.
quently can be brought up to class
work by coaching.
Third Class Troublesome.
The third group has given the fed
| eral farm board and all the institu-
lions great trouble. Insurmountable
varying numbers they form the prob
lem ut every state agricultural col
lege and school. and they constitute
from % to as high as so per cent Of
the men approved for agricultural
| training.
This large percentage is due to the
| fact that these men for the most part
are from isolated country districts
where the opportunities have not been
| so great for early education.
Farmer parents have been unwilling
to allow the boys more than a very
ordinary education, for fear Of losing
| them from the farm. Many have had
no opportunity. Such are usually old
er men, Is or 20 years past country
school age. Many Of the men are
therefore practically illiterate, and
| to this number must be added
the foreign illiterates that is, for
eigners who are nliterate from the
English standpoint
These difficulties constitute q real
problem to the federal board and the
institutions to which these men are
| sent. State institutions are not al
ways prepared to do the elementary
work necessary to advance the men to
knowledge Of English and mathe-
matics where they can receive and be
benefited by the agricultural training.
However, without exception. the
state institutions are convinced II Is
their patriotic duty to assist the fed
eral board In making preparation to
extend the necessary prevocational
training, and have changed wonder
fully In favor Of training disabled men
| In spite Of their educational handi0ps.
As students the institutions are be-
ginning to appreciate them.
Forms a "Guidance School,"
DR.. Walter J. Quick, training off,
Ger, worked out an elementary school,
which he termed guidance school,"
where such men we're collected and In
| strxcted In the elementary COM
mon branches and In elementary agri-
culture. The school has been made
prerequisite to certain courses that
DR.. Quick has designed as agricul-
tural unit courses They are divided
into units of one month each, cover
one year continuously from month to
month and may be entered any month.
A man may take one or several
others as minors related to the ma
jor, while at the same time he contin-
ues In the common branches Of the
| guidance school.
| Nearly all the state institutions will
allow the men credits for the work
done In the unit agricultural courses,
which now include a two-year course,
as well as the one-year.
These plans Of the guidance school
and agricultural unit courses were
reduced to definite form and mimeO-
| graphed for the benefit Of all institu-
tons Offering agricultural training to
the disabled class.