AGRICULTURAL STUDY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16462, 14 June 1919, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL STUDY.

A SCHOOLS QUESTION. TWO POINTS OF VIEW. 'The conference convened hy the Director of Education (Dr. Anuerson) to discuss with huu measures tor the improvement of the instruction to he given in the subject of agriculture in tno primary and .secondary schools was concluded on yaturday morning.. Right, through the contoronce there were two opposing bodies of opinion. Dr. Hilgendorf, director of Lincoln Agricultural College, was the leader of one group, to winch belonged also the University science teachers present, and members of this party declared that agriculture could not oo taught with any educational benefit, or any practical good, unless the scholar first acquired a knowledge of the basic sciences. These gentlemen wore not concerned with so-called nature study lessons, or rural science lessons, but they would not have it that the proper name for such teaching was agriculture, and they disputed the value of these lessons xor any purpose. The other body supported the opinion that it boys were to be required to acquire a knowledge of the basic sciences before proceeding to the study of agriculture, most boys would never study it at all. They held that without knowledge of any other sciences a boy could be taught something about plant life, the germination and growth of plants, the properties of soils, and so on. This was the view of the Director of Education, and it was for the purpose of improving this instruction that ho had called the conference. The result of the conference was summed up in his concluding words to the delegates. “Although,” said Dr. Anderson, “the formal -result of the conference may not appear to be very great in the shape of reports by committees adopted, and resolutions passed, yet the great advantage—and it is a great advantage—to bo derived from a meeting of. this kind is from the mooting itself, the interchange of ideas, of all points of view, in the free discussion of topic after topic in the conference. In that respect wc have been fortunate enough. We have made in this respect a very considerable advance towards co-ordination of effort, oven although that co-ordination is not expressed in a report. We have a clearer perception of the functions of agricultural .instructors in relation to primary and secondary schools, and in that respect oho conference has done very useful work.

“Notwithstanding the opinions that have with high authority been put before you to the effect that agriculture can be studied only on the farm, that agriculture from a scientific point of view can bo studied only by those who have had an elementary training in such basic sciences as physics, chemistry, and biology, yet wo need not hide our diminished heads arid deny the value of the instruction we are giving on different linos. Wc approach agriculture not from the standpoint of the practical farmer, but from the standpoint of nature study training. We are taking agriculture as the development of a the nature study of the primary schools. Wo are taking the agricultural object, whether it bo an apple or a potato, the stem of a tree, or a plant, or an animal, and we make this the basis of the cultivation of the mind of the boy. in relation to his immediate interests in such a way as to give him an intelligent apprehension of agricultural processes a lien ho comos to use them afterwards, and to approach these subjects in an intelligent way, with a better attitude towards the reasons for things than the mere rule of thumb practitioner would have. This is for the boy who may have to earn his living from the land. Of the other boy we say that wo are making him a bettor citizen in giving him a hotter attitude towards his surroundings. lam satisfied that wo need not hide our diminished heads in the face of opinion that agriculture can be studied only from the point of view of practical work. Agriculture can, I believe, be profitably studied from the point of view of service to man, and not from the point of view of any science involved.

“I impress this view on you that you may go back to your duties with the idea that you are giving good service even if you are not teaching agriculture from the point of view of scientific farming. lam satisfied that if our hoys and girls who have been in the secondary departments of our district high schools, or the junior classes of the secondary schools, our boys who have gone through this course of extended nature study, or agriculture, or rural science—whichever name you choose to call it—studied or approached in the way indicated, do go on a farm later, if they have to set ajeout learning the actual practice of agriculture by becoming cadets on private farm's, they will approach the work that has to be done there with a far more intelligent spirit,, in a far bettor spirit, than could possibly have been expected under other conditions. Whether he is to become a citizen earning his living away from, the land, or whether he is to become a tiller of the soil himself, if a boy has had two or three years of study such as you have to give him, you will make him a better farmer. if he is to bo a farmer, and you will make him a better citizen, than he could bo under any other conditions.” 1