Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-12-16
TEACHING AGRICULTURE IN
NEW JERSEY

ment of Public Instruction, Trenton.
Agriculture as a public school SUBJ
iect is rapidly assuming Importance
n New Jersey. Three types of work
arc offered in our schools-elementary
agriculture in the grades, vocational
agriculture in the high schools and
snecial evening short course classes
for adults and young men who are
not regularly enrolled as high school
nnnils. The instruction in the grades
is for the purpose of giving the chill
dren an appreciation of food produc-
tion and distribution. This work is
intended for classes in the cities, in
euburban districts, and in the country:
children no matter where they live
should have an understanding about
+he food that comes to them by the
hand of the farmer. In many subur-
han districts school gardening and
backward poultry production are
stressed as a part of the agricultural
lessons. When following this plan
the children have gardens and poultry
of their own at their homes and thus
thew get not only the class room part
of the instruction, but the practical
mart also. Excellent work of this kind
has been done at Bloomfield under the
direction of A. G.. Pennell,. an agri-
cultural college graduate employed by
the Board of Education at teacher of
agriculture. During the past few
years hundreds of children in the
Bloomfield schools have been helped
TO a better realization of gardening,
poultry work, and agriculture in gen.
eral through the efforts of Mr.. Pen
nell. superintendent George Morris
and the members of the Board of Edu-
cation of Bloomfield are loud in their
praise of this kind of school work for
suburban districts.
The second type of work-vocational
agriculture work in the high school
was started in New Jersey in 1918.
In this the aim of the instruction is to
train the boys to become farmers.
Naturally, then, such work is offered
chiefly in high schools situated in
rural districts = Newton, Freehold,
Bridgeton, Salem, Mount Holly and the
like. When introduced in such
schools, a four-year curriculum is
planned and agriculture and certain
academic studies are offered each year.
For example, a boy in the first year
of the high school will study English,
Algebra, General Science, Civics, and
certain subjects in agriculture, per-
haps Field Crops or Vegetable Pro-
duction. In the second, third and
fourth years he will have other aca-
demic studies and other agricultural
subjects. By the time he has COM
pleted his course he will have a well
rounded high school education in the
academic studies and in addition an
extensive knowledge of agriculture.
There is no statewide course of study
in agriculture; a course is formulated
for each school that organizes the
work. In this way the instruction can
be planned to fit the agriculture of the
community.
In addition to the class room in
struction in agriculture, each boy in
the class must undertake a project or
enterprise, of some magnitude on his
own farm. In this work he is care
fully supervised by the teacher of
agriculture, who, by the way, is en-
ployed for the calendar year in order
that he can be with the boys during
the summer months as we'll as during
the school year.
Although this high school work is
given chiefly in country districts, one
city in New Jersey-Paterson-has
established a vocational course in ag-
riculture in it's public school system.
City Superintendent John Wilson and
Principal Francis North, of the h1gh
school, decided a few years ago that
certain city boys would be interested
in an agricultural course Accord
ingly, with the help of the State De-
partment of Public Instruction, they
planned a course and employed a
special teacher for the work. The ex-
pertinent has proved to be successful,
for at the beginning of the present
school year the enrolment had in
creased to such an extent that 1t was
necessary to employ an additional
teacher.
The third type of work-special
evening short course classes-is grow
ing rapidly and it's Importance to the
farming industry of the state has great
possibilities. In this special field New
Jersey is a pioneer, but many other
states have grasped the idea and are
organizing classes.
A recent Federal report, however,
shows that New Jersey is still first IN
the number of classes and the size
of the enrolment, and it is the aim OF
those in charge of the work to Keep