PRACTICAL EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13672, 13 February 1908, Page 7

PRACTICAL EDUCATION.

THE NEWER SYSTEM. ' MODERN* FARMERS. ■The old Idea"of education related paly to a man's mind as a thing apart from his body and his life, and concerned itself only with the idealising of the intellect without" regard to its human relationship or the conditions under-which the man was to live. Its purpose was to spiritualise or humanise tho mind, independent of any other purpose. Its ideal was education for education's sake. In the schools dominated by such standards the classics were taught, as were the languages, living and dead, mathematics, and literature. The product ■of this System, in the better class of cases, was a delightfully cultivated man with refined tastes and delicate sensibilities, but Utopian, idealistic, and inefficient. He had learned neither man nor thing.-;, and the best that could bo said of him was that lie brought to this task a mind trained to think and a judgment strengthened by systematic cultivation. But 'when learning spread, when industry diversified, when education tamo to be viewed without awe or blind veneration, it was plainly seen that by this process too many ine-n ■ were wasted, too few were helped. For the..better type of men with certain aptitudes it was admirably adapted, but with ' respect to the great body of men they wore incapable of realising its best results, while they suffered the detriment, of being trained away from the realities of life without having being trained into any of its so-called higher purposes. The result was criticism of dead languages and wasted years, and a demand that men be taught in the schools the tilings they were ■• to do in after life. So after centuries of forming judgment and decades of effort, the sciences were forced into schools, and chemistry and physics and botany and geology and mechanics became regular subjects of instruction in our schools and colleges and universities. They were forced in from the outside because they were useful, and they were slowly and reluctantly accepted on the inside because of their cultural value. When the educational mind became thus liberated it began to see- things in their reality, and wo have come to have a new conception of what constitutes sound mental training. As a result, following science, we have admitted manual training, domestic economy, and commercial courses into tho schools with splendid results. We have found that while they, were intensely practical, teaching the young man or woman the things ho or she would later have to know or do, they have likewise contributed to tho finest mental culture. Without, enlarging upon this idea, it is enough to say that the conquest of the previously scorned utilitarian in education has been complete, and tho schoolsmen have found"that the highest purpose of education is ..develop the well-balanced, completely rounded-out • man, and this can only , lie done by training the head, the heart, and tho hand. The schools must cultivate tho heartthat is, build character--or they must fail of their best purpose. They must train the mind to give it strength and health and sympathy. And lastly, and with great emphasis, they must train the hand, the body, because of its educative reaction, and because it. is -the only means through which the mind can give expression, to its conceptions. -

In other words, education now recognises its obligation to train, the, whole man and not a part of the inan. The old division of subjects into cultural and utilitarian has been abandoned as artificial and arbitrary, and ti'O have come to know that no thing or fact or factor in life lacks cultural value, provided it is truly viewed and is given the proper interpretation. Out of this conception has come 'the great movement for agricultural education, - -which, tersely dofined, means only teaching the things related to farm life in a broad and systematic way.

This movement recognised that there was a learning related to all. the infinite pro-. cesses which centre upon the farm, which relate to the character of soils, the growth of plants, the breeding of animals, and the multitude of arts and sciences of. farm, operation; as well as there was for engineering, for mining, for mechanics, or for the various professions. It is the purpose of education to make of farming" a highly scientific occupation, if not a learned profession. It aims to teach the fanner the infinite rang© of an agricultural life, to know Nature, to understand animals, and to discern beauties and find happiness in doing his day's work. It seeks to make all of his labour, the humblest task at his hand, intellectual, and thus to transform drudgery into enthusiasm; to make his work more productive; .to enlarge the .range of his mind, and to change his solitude into a joyful companionship with Nature's manifold wonders. Its effect is to make a better man and a better citizen, as well as a better farmer.