Educating the Farmboy

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 121, 17 October 1941, Unnumbered Page

Educating the Farmboy

As far as the educational qualifications of the boy are concerned a sound general training is re quired, with preferably at least two years postprimary education and very desirably a school certificate (three or four years) or similar qualifications -this may be useful some day; one never knows and many have been very sorry that they left school

without some such certificate, A suitable course will include the basic sciences such as biology, botany, zoology, physics and chemistry, woodwork, metalwork, farm mechanics and motors engineering, and book-keeping. The aim of his course should be to fit him to read intelligently, to acquire knowledge from the research of specialists and to develop an open end recentive

mind towards agricultural problems, For this, the biological, or agricultural sciences, are very necessary. Some commercial training is most desirable, as farmning after all is a business as well as an art. Before leaving this phase of the subject, I feel that it is most desirable to say something about two commonly held and very unshaken ideas. One such opinion is that post-primary education is not necessary for a boy going on a farm-no more disastrous idea can ever have been put forward-the fuller his school career has been the more qualified he is to take his place in the rural community and to benefit from the short courses conducted by the Agricultural Colleges, the Department of Agriculture, and so on. The second idea concerns the ownership of land. It is often stated that it is no use going farming as the boy can never own his own land. This may be so if one has in mind a well-developed farm in a progressive district and ownership when the boy is a@ young man, but the figures do’not support the argument for the land in general, provided the boy . is of a saving disposition and is willing to spend part of his life either developing a piece of country or on the outskirts, The proportion of those who are their own masters in the agricultural and pastoral industries is several times greater in these occupations than in any of the secondary industries or in commerce, and most of the proprietors of farms build up their farms from their own earnings.- (" Agriculture as a Career," B. M. Davis, 1YA, Sepe tember 25.)