AGRICULTURE IN SCHOOLS

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1940, Page 6

AGRICULTURE IN SCHOOLS

It is satisfactory to note that the deadlock between the Taranaki Education Board and the Department of Education in regard to the appointment of a senior instructor of agriculture in schools has been overcome. The board h#s not been successful in obtaining the fulltime services of the instructor. They are to be shared with some schools in the Auckland education district, but this arrangement is an improvement on the position first adopted by the department, namely, that there should be only two instructors in the Taranaki area. The board was justified in its protests against this proposal and the arrangement now made is a fairly reasonable compromise. There is no doubt that the board and the instructors will do their best to see that there is no lowering of the standard of instruction in a most important subject. Judging from the instructions issued by the department in regard to the itineranes of instructors in agriculture a good deal of co-operation on the part of parents and school committees will be necessary to maintain this standard. The limitations imposed by the department are part of the general campaign for the conservation of petrol supplies during the war, and must be complied with as such. At the same time the importance of school agriculture must not be ignored. Out of the school teaching has developed the successful boys and girls' agricultural clubs movement and it would be regrettable if this movement were retarded for the sake of a few gallons of petrol. It is no reflection upon individual teaching staffs to say that visits of a special instructor awaken and stimulate interest in school agriculture among the pupils. The farmers of the future will have fresh problems to overcome. The more thorough their grounding in sound principles of husbandry during their most receptive years the better prepared will they be for the practical duties awaiting them when manhood is reached, and the less likely will they be to join the "drift to the town" that has presented the farming industry with a serious labour problem.