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Show IThe Standard's U. A. C. Bureau j Articles of Interest to Farmers, Housekeepers and Others Written for The Standard by Experts at Utah's Noted Agricultural College at Logan . j TEACHING AGRICULTURE IN THE SCHOOLS. By DR. F. S. HARRIS. Director Experiment Station, U. A. C. The methods of education have un dergone, and are still undergoing, constant con-stant change. In tho past, courses of study were often begun by teaching subjects that were furthest from the pupil's experience and that he was least able to understand. Familiar ; material was not given until arter the child had been stuffed full of facts about distant lands, and his mind had been made tired trying to grasp all sorts of abstract truths. The reindeer In Siberia was given more attention than the cattle on his own hillside, and he was taught more facts about the rlarjs of Saturn than about tho soil I which was always under his feel. In I short, unusual, distant, and spectacular spectacu-lar subjects were considered more worthy of study than the commonplace everyday objects by which he was surrounded. sur-rounded. Nowadays we are coming to learn that, the proper way to teach a child Is to begin with things that nre familiar to him. He is interested In the objects ob-jects about him because ho knows something of them. By-building wisely wise-ly on this knowledge the teacher can lead the child lrom the known to the unknown, keeping him interested in tho meantime and making his educa-.j tion sound since it has personal experience ex-perience as its foundation. Thus, in stead of beginning a course in geography geogra-phy by the study or Saturn and Siberia, Si-beria, the wise teacher will use the child's knowledge of his own region as a basis on which to give later instruction in-struction regarding distant lands. What is true of Individual subjects is also true of the school curriculum, of course, taken as a whole. The subjects sub-jects studied during the child's early years at school should be the ones that have something 1n common with his dally life outside of the ?chool- room The subjecllvp, abstract courses should be left till his mind is more1 mature. While young, the normnl human hu-man being is objective In nature; this fact must be kept in mind whont outlining out-lining his school work. The study of agriculture lends itself particularly well to tho objective period pe-riod in the child's life. It employs the; objects with which he is so familiar. It comes close to his daily activities and observations. It deals with the soil over which he walks or runs every hour of the day, with I he trees thatj give him shade, with the crops that give him food, and the flowers that he ; loves to see and smell, with the horse that carries or pulls him, with the cow that gives him rood, and with the sheep Jhat give him clothing. These things aro always before him and arc. the center of his interest. He likes fo stu:ly about them, because his observa-! tions have given him something on I which to base that study. I A child in tho large city i3 not so familiar with these things as the ono raised in the open country; hence, hisj interest In them will not be exactly the same, but his desire to know more about his food and clothing supply should help to awaken his interest. Tho ignorance of some city children (regarding these things is shown by a child that had been brought up in the crowded part of New York City where tho family had obtained Its sup ' pllos from the grocers. Later tho' father took his son out to a farm in New Jersey. Here the boy refused to drink milk that came from a cow, but wanted the bottled kind like they had at home. He did not know that his' home milk had come from cows, but I thought it was made in some such way as soda water. The study of agriculture agricul-ture would mean something entirely difieroni to this boy Uian to one from! the farm, and the methods of teaching, would not be the same, but the sub- Ject is important to both. r (Continued Tomorrow) |