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Show A PRACTICAL EDUCATION. When the editor was In Leamington he spent a couple of hours at the school and we believe Principal Cheel la doing more to keep tbe boys and girls on the farm than any other teacher In the county. Ai least, we know of ne teacher who Is following just tbe same lines he Is. He does not confine hla teaching to books, but takes his pupils out and teaches them shout plants, fruits, birds and many things about farm life. Then, he baa tbem write about what they have seen and the best' of it goes into the Chronicle. Chron-icle. Dy this meana the bablt of observation ob-servation and expression Is cultivated. Tbey find a new interest In the common com-mon things around them which will certainly give farm life an added attraction at-traction to them and make them less likely to be drawn to the attractions of city life. There Is a widespread complaint that too many of our young people are being drawn from the farm to the city, but It Is not because our whole system sys-tem of education la away from the farm and to the city. Education ia too bookish. It Is not related closely enough to dally life. Education, la our public schools seems more for the purpose of fitting the pupil for tbe high school than for the real problems prob-lems of life. Education In th ' -:h school Is chiefly to fit the papa J going ' to tbe university. 1 Education In the university Is to fit them for professional pro-fessional life, or as some kind o an engineer, or perhaps as a teacher, it tl'ieon't fit thera for farmers, though iitarly SO per cent of those engaged ii production are farmers. The professions are overcrowded. More engineers are working for less than $100 than for more. An educated educat-ed farmer who can't make more than that a month lacks either Judgment or Industry. There la only a limited demand de-mand for doctors and lawyers and engineers, en-gineers, but there Is aa unlimited demand de-mand for educated farmers. Labor-saving Labor-saving machinery makes farm life no longer tbe round of drudgery and hard work that It waa CO years ago. The farmer's life Is more Independent than any wage-earners' can be, and In this age of large Industrial enterprises what wage-earner can hope to ever get Into business for himself and be Independent In-dependent of a boss? And tbe older he becomes the less valuable be Is to bis employer, and when old age comes be is likely to bet set aside for a 1 younger man. We believe that every public school, particularly country schools, ought to teach elementary agriculture. We ' don't believe any child old enough to 1 g to school Is too young to be taught 1 something about plants and animals and birds. Not ten out of a hundred 1 of the pupils In tbe public schools ever 1 go beyond the eight gradti. The great : majority of county pupils will be, 1 farmers. What have tbey learned U 1 the school to fit tbem for farmers' 1 Very little. They probably have not even learned to estimate how many tons of bsy there are In a stack. 1 The average high school Is no better. An analysia of 8097 high schools pub- linhed by U. 9. Commissioner of Edu- cation, shows that 82.64 per cent of ' tbem teach Latin, French and Ger man; 87.72 per cent teach algebra and 1 geometry; 4.6$ per cent teach agrlcul- tore and 3.78 per cent teach domestic ' n lence. Then only r2 per cent of ' '.i:gh ichool atudents ever grsduste. W'e I wonder if tbe reason why so few high school and public school atudents grad- I uate la not becsuse they feel as If I the kind of education they are get- ting Is not worth waile? ' Public and b'g'a school education c jcgbt to give the pupil some prepara- ' ion for his vocation In Hie and 01 him 1 or tbe duties of citizenship. Bu leariy all this prepsration has to cotuf titer be leavea school. Education U oo bookish, too academ'c. It ln't sactlcal enough. Let us bave a tlrtl. t core practical and agrlcultaral educa I .ion la our school. i |
