AGRICULTURE IN SCHOOLS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 273, 28 April 1915, Page 6

AGRICULTURE IN SCHOOLS.

AX ADDRESS TO TEACHERS. At thi' meeting of the Teachers' Insl.: j ,ut( on Saturday an address was gin iy Mr. ,1. (!. Ellis, instructor iiiuier l":c> I'aranaki Education Board, on the subject of agriculture in schools. Ac in the (lavs of Tennyson, said Mr. lillis, we were finding that the old order mast change, and that in education, a<s in art, newer methods were coining into use. that could not be disregarded. The introduction of agriculture as a subject to be taught in the schools of the Dominion was one of these new movements, and since the. appointment of the first instructor less than ten years ago, he had taken a wry keen interest in the movement, and was quite assured of the importance of tin; science as a subject ol instruction. He did not assert that agricultural science was the most important subject in the syllabus, paramount t:> all others, nor did he say, as some did, that because Taranaki was essentially a dairying district, therefore dairy science, and incidentally agricultural science, should be taught in every school in the province. If lie could advance no belt-t-ir reason for its adoption, he would have a very 'poor cause, but nevertheless it was a reason. The. study of agriculture in the schools was important on the grounds that .the Dominion was largely agricultural, and the training of the youth of a community should be in the direction of its recognised occupation, but there were other and more important reasons in the interests of the children's education. He knew of no subject more calculated to awaken in the youth of the country a. spirit of enijuiry and a thirst for knowledge than a course of rural instruction, and he claimed that if education meant filling them up with things they might remember or forget, and the ehance had to be taken whether they would remember or forget, the children would be less forgetful of what they learned in agricultural classes than many of the things they were taught. It was the first thought, and not the. last one, which must be the underlying principle in the teaching of agriculture in our schools; the science, even to the smallest children, could not be taught like table.?. iAs the schools were at present, no specialisation could be practised, buc certain boys and girls would some day breakaway from their fellows and become something out of the ordinary, and he j remarked that although their life work

would be outside the sphere of farm life generally, the course of agricultural instruction .would be of value, and the time spent would not have, been wasted, hut, on the contrary, the acquired habits of observation and deduction, etc., would be of untold value in whatever walk of life might be pursued . Another object could be achieved. The farmers who wanted to learn might be taught through their cli'' rcu, for his experience had proved that spine parents, at least, appiociated the information which the children acquired and took home to share with the older folks there. Any satisfactory scheme of agricultural instruction would extend over nearly the whole period of the child's school-life, and, like every other subject, would be in a gradually ascending scale, and as a consequence the nature study taught in the lower standards should be introductory to the agricultural work of the upper standards, and the rural course in the

secondary schools should be supplementary thereto, lie did not claim that the present system of nature study was perfect or even complete; he bad endeavored to make it very elementary and introductory, and would be the last 'person

to object if some of the teachers were following a more elaborate or useful one. They would find that it covered merelv

elementary lessons in botany, whereas a perfect system, should touch upon

geology, entomology, ornithology, etc., all of which co-related to agriculture. It was the business of education to awaken the child's interest in the phenomena of Nature, and in all the nature

study lessons they should be encouraged to make discoveries. It was here they would begin to learn how to make ac-

curate observations, and the teacher should make sure the pupil really saw

the thing the teacher did, and as nearly #■) possible in the same light. Correct iuf( lence and faithful record were equally important. The course of practical lessons in gardening for primary schools which his issued last year was merely intended to give the teachers a lead, and a« amended copy would be sent out this also details of a few experiments winch would furnish interesting lessons for the class-room. In those, school gardens where no field experimental work wa s undertaken good work could be done in the cultivation of vegetables common to the cottage garden. In others experimental work in growing farm crops could be continued and the grass experiments of last year improved upon, whilst some top-dressing of permanent pastures could be attempted. Personally he was not going to dictate to any teacher as to what must be done—th.': honest attempt to do something in keeping with the size of the ground was wl.nt would always appeal to him. He had seen some really good work at some .of the school grounds, but at no place had he found neater work and more perfect results than in the little garden at Douglas. In some other places he had been disappointed. Nothing could give hitter educational results than a, decent-ly-kept, well arranged anil intelligently stocked flower garden. It was Ms desire to be an instructor rather than an inspector, and he reminded the teachers that he wanted to be really helpful to them,, and that his services" were theirs to command.

The chairman (Mr. H. Stratford), in thanking Mr. Ellis for his address, cxpiessod the opinion that at many schools the agricultural plots were too fully stocked. lie advocated having fewer crops in the garden. Mr. Ellis agreed, and pointed out that tin? good-results achieved at the Douglas school were traceable mainly to the fact that attention was concentrated on a few crops. Mr. .Sandford said that a former instructor had inaugurated a shield competition for the best garden, and whilst this was a very worthy object, very few schools went in for it thoroughly. He suggested that it would be interesting if tin! results obtained from the soils at the various schools in the province could be analysed and published. A member pointed out that the school plots were too small to he applied as a sample of the district in which it was situated.

It was suggested that the results from the school instruction plots should be combined with those of Mr. Sei'"el's campaign, so that districts outside & thc hitter's division could be brought into the work.

A vote of thanks was passed to Mr Ellis for his address.