The Vitalized School Part 11

13. Compare the socialized recitation with a debate.

14. Compare it with an ordinary discussion or argument.

15. Show just why the results of the socialized recitation are likely to be permanent.

16. How does socialized cla.s.s work affect the home and society?

17. Though school is a preparation for life, it, at the same time, is life. Show that the socialized recitation presupposes this truth.

18. Compare the value of the a.s.signment of a history lesson in the manner described in the notes quoted with the value of an ordinary a.s.signment.

19. Describe at least one other socialized recitation.

20. Compare socialized work as described in Scott's Social Education (C.

A. Scott, Ginn & Co., 1908) with the socialized recitation here described, as to (_a_) aim, (_b_) method, (_c_) results.

21. "Lessons require two kinds of industry, the private individual industry and the social industry or cla.s.s work." Is this true? If so, what sort of recitation-lesson will stimulate each kind?

CHAPTER XVI

AGRICULTURE

=Agriculture a typical study.=--In the vitalized school the subject of agriculture is typical and may profitably be elaborated somewhat by way of ill.u.s.trating the relation of a subject to school procedure. From whatever angle we approach the subject of agriculture we find it inextricably connected with human life. This fact alone gives to it the rank of first importance. Its present prominence as a school study is conclusive evidence that those who are charged with the responsibility of administering the schools are becoming conscious of the need for vitalizing them. Time was when arithmetic was regarded as the most practical subject in the school and, therefore, it was given precedence over all others. History, grammar, and geography were relegated to secondary rank, and agriculture was not even thought of as a school study. But as population increased and the problem of providing food began to loom large in the public consciousness, the subject of agriculture a.s.sumed an importance that rendered it worthy a place in the school curriculum. It is a high tribute to the school that whenever any subject takes hold of the public mind the school is thought of at once as the best agency for promulgating that subject. The subjects of temperance and military training aptly ill.u.s.trate this statement of fact.

=Its rapid development.=--So soon, therefore, as the subject of agriculture became prominent in the public consciousness there ensued a speedy development of colleges and schools of agriculture for the training of teachers. This movement was prophetic of the plan and purpose to incorporate this study in the school regime. And this prophecy has been fulfilled, for the school now looks upon agriculture as a basic study. True, we are as yet only feeling our way, and that for the very good reason that the magnitude of the subject bewilders us. We have written many textbooks on the subject that were soon supplemented by better ones. The more the subject is studied, the more we appreciate its far-reaching ramifications. We find it attaching itself to many other subjects to which it seemed to have but remote relation in the earlier stages of our study. In brief, we are now on the borderland of a realization of the fact that agriculture is as broad as life and, therefore, must embrace many other studies that have a close relation to life.

=Relation to geology and other sciences.=--In the beginning, geology and agriculture seemed far apart, but our closer study of agriculture has revealed the fact that they are intimately related. It remained for agriculture to lay the right emphasis upon geology. The study of the composition and nature of the soil carried us at once to a study of its origin and we found ourselves at the very door of geology. When we began to inquire how the soil came to be where it is and what it is, we found ourselves yearning for new and clearer lines of demarcation in science, for we could scarcely distinguish between geology and physiography. We soon traced our alluvial plains back to their upland origin, and then we were compelled to explain their migration. This led us inevitably into the realm of meteorology, for, if we omit meteorology, the chain is broken and we lose our way in our search for the explanation we need.

But having availed ourselves of the aid of meteorology, we have a story that is full of marvelous interest--the great story of the evolution of the cornfield. In this story we find many alluring details of evaporation, air movements, precipitation, erosion, and the attraction of gravitation. But in all this we are but lingering in the anteroom of agriculture.

=The importance of botany.=--Advancing but a single step we find ourselves in the realm of botany, which is a field so vast and so fascinating that men have devoted an entire lifetime to its wonders, and then realized that they had but made a beginning in the way of exploring its possibilities. In our own time Mr. Burbank has made his name known throughout the world by his work in one phase of this subject, and a score of other Burbanks might be working with equal success in other branches of the subject and still not trench upon one another's domain.

Venturesome, indeed, would be the prophet who would attempt to predict the developments in the field of botany in the next century in the way of providing food, shelter, and clothing for the race. The possibilities stagger the imagination and the prophet stands bewildered as he faces this ever-widening field. But botany, vast as it is seen to be, is only one of the branching sciences connected with agriculture.

=Physics and chemistry.=--Another advance brings us into the wide and fertile field of physics and chemistry, for in these subjects we find the means of interpreting much in agriculture that without their aid would elude our grasp. We have only to resolve a grain of corn into its component elements to realize the potency and scope of chemistry. Then if we inquire into the sources of these elements as they have come from the soil to form this grain of corn, the indispensability of a knowledge of chemistry will become more apparent. In our explanations we shall soon come upon capillary attraction, and the person is dull, indeed, who does not stand in awe before the mystery of this subject. If we broaden our inquiry so as to compa.s.s the evolution of an ear of corn, we shall realize that we have entered upon an inquiry of vast and fascinating import. The intricate and delicate processes of growth, combining, as they do, the influences of sunshine and moisture and the conversion into food products of elements whose origin goes back to primeval times,--these processes are altogether worthy of the combined enthusiasms of scientist and poet.

=Physiology.=--But no mention has been made, as yet, of the science of physiology, which, alone, requires volumes. We have but to ask how wheat is converted into brain power to come upon a realization of the magnitude of the study of this science. We have only to relax the leash of fancy to see that there are no limits to the excursions that may be made in this field. If we allow fancy to roam, taking the _a posteriori_ course, we might begin with "Paradise Lost" and reach its sources in garden and field, in orchard, and in pasture where graze flocks and herds. But in any such fanciful meandering we should be well within the limits of physiology, and should be trying to interpret the adaptation of means to end, or, to use the language of the present, we should be making a quest to determine how the products of field, orchard, and pasture may be utilized that they may function in poetry, in oratory, in discoveries, and in inventions. In short, we should be trying to explain to ourselves how agriculture functions in life.

=Art as an auxiliary.=--In a recent work of fiction a chapter opens with a picture of a little girl eating a slice of bread and b.u.t.ter which is further surmounted by apple sauce and sugar. If the author of the book "Agriculture and Life" had only caught a glimpse of this picture, he might have changed the t.i.tle of his book to "Life and Agriculture." He certainly would have given to the life element far more prominence than his book in its present form affords. His t.i.tle makes a promise which the book itself does not redeem, more's the pity. If science would use art as an ally, it need not be less scientific, and its teachings would prove far more palatable. The little girl with her bread and b.u.t.ter would prove quite as apt as an introductory picture for a book on agriculture as for a work of fiction. It matters not that agriculture includes so many other sciences, for life is the great objective of the study of all these, and the little girl exemplifies life.

=Relation of sciences to life.=--The pictures are practically endless with which we might introduce the study of agriculture--a boy in the turnip field, a milkmaid beside the cow, or Millet's celebrated picture "Feeding the Birds." And, sooner or later, pursuing our journey from such a starting point, we shall arrive at physiology, chemistry, botany, physics, meteorology, and geology, and still never be detached from the subject of life. In the school consciousness agriculture and domestic science seem far apart, but by right teaching they are made to merge in the subject of life. Upon that plane we find them to be complementary and reciprocal. In the same way chemistry, botany, and physiology merge in agriculture for the reason that all these sciences as well as agriculture have to do with life. In the traditional school chemistry is taught as chemistry--as a branch of science, and the learner is encouraged to seek for knowledge. In the vitalized school the truths of chemistry are no less clearly revealed, but, in addition, their relations to life are made manifest, and the learner has a fuller appreciation of life, because of his study of chemistry.

=Traditional methods.=--In the traditional school domestic science is taught that the girl may learn how to cook; but in the vitalized school the girl learns how to cook that she may be able to make life more agreeable and productive both for herself and for others. In the traditional school the study of agriculture consists of the testing of soils and seeds, working out scientific theories on the subject of the rotation of crops, testing for food values the various products of the farm, judging stock, studying the best method of propagating and caring for orchards, and testing for the most economic processes for conserving and marketing crops. In the vitalized school all this is done, but this is not the ultimate goal of the study. The end is not reached until all these ramifications have touched life.

=The child as the objective.=--Reverting once more to the little girl of the picture, it will be conceded, upon careful consideration, that she is the center and focus of all the activities of mind and hand pertaining to agriculture. Every furrow that is plowed is plowed for her; every tree that is planted is planted for her; every crop that is harvested is harvested for her; and every trainload of grain is moving toward her as its destination. But for her, farm machinery would be silent, orchards would decay, trains would cease to move, and commerce would be no more. She it is that causes the wheels to turn, the harvesters to go forth to the fields, the experiment stations to be equipped and operated, the markets to throb with activity, and the ships of commerce to ply the ocean. For her the orchard, the granary, the dairy, and the loom give of their stores, and a million willing hands till, and toil, and spin.

=The story of bread.=--But the bread and b.u.t.ter, the apple sauce, and the sugar! They may not be omitted from the picture. The bread transports us to the fields of waving grain and conjures up in our imagination visions of harvesters with their implements, wagons groaning beneath their golden loads, riches of grain pouring forth from machines, and brings to our nostrils the tang of the harvest time. Into this slice of bread the sun has poured his wealth of sunshine all the summer long, and into it the kindly clouds have distilled their treasures. In it we find the glory of the sunrise, the sparkling dewdrop, the song of the robin, the gentle mooing of the cows, the murmur of the brook, and the creaking of the mill wheel. In it we read the poetry of the morning and of the evening, the prophecy of the noontide heat, and the mighty proclamations of Nature. And it tells us charming stories of health, of rosy cheeks, of laughing eyes, of happiness, of love and service.

=Food and life.=--The b.u.t.ter, the apple sauce, and the sugar each has a story of its own to tell that renders fiction weak by comparison. If our hearts were but attuned to the charm and romance of the stories they have to tell, every breakfast-table would be redolent with the fragrance of thanksgiving. If our hearts were responsive to the eloquence of these stories, then eating would become a ceremony and upon the farmer who provides our food would descend our choicest benedictions. If the scales could but fall from our eyes that we might behold the visions which our food foretells, we could look down the vista of the years and see the children grown to manhood and womanhood, happy and busy in their work of enlarging and beautifying civilization.

=Agriculture the source of life.=--Agriculture is not the sordid thing that our dull eyes and hearts would make it appear. In it we shall find the romance of a Victor Hugo, the poetry of a Sh.e.l.ley or a Shakespeare, the music of a Mozart, the eloquence of a Demosthenes, and the painting of a Raphael, when we are able to interpret its real relation to life.

When the morning stars sang together they were celebrating the birth of agriculture, but man became bewildered in the mazes of commercialism and forgot the music of the stars. It is the high mission of the vitalized school to lead us back from our wanderings and to restore us to our rightful estate amid the beauties, the inspiration, the poetry, and the far-reaching prophecies of agriculture. This it can do only by revealing to us the possibilities, the glories, and the joy of life and causing us to know that agriculture is the source of life.

=Synthetic teaching.=--The a.n.a.lytic teaching of agriculture will not avail; we must have the synthetic also. Too long have we stopped short with a.n.a.lysis. We have come within sight of the promised land but have failed to go up and possess it. We have studied the skeleton of agriculture but have failed to endow it with life. We must keep before our eyes the picture of the little girl. We must feel that the quintessence and spirit of agriculture throbs through all the arteries of life. Here lies the field in which imagination can do its perfect work. Here is a subject in which the vitalized school may find its highest and best justification. By no means is it the only study that fitly exemplifies life, but, in this respect, it is typical, and therefore a worthy study. On the side of a.n.a.lysis the teacher finds the blade of gra.s.s to be a thing of life; on the side of synthesis she finds the blade of gra.s.s to be a life-giving thing. And the synthesis is no less in accord with science than the a.n.a.lysis.

=The element of faith.=--Then again agriculture and life meet and merge on the plane of faith. The element of faith fertilizes life and causes it to bring forth in abundance. Man must have faith in himself, faith in the people about him, and faith in his own plans and purposes to make his life potent and pleasurable. By faith he attaches the truths of science to his plans and thus to the processes of life; for without the faith of man these truths of science are but static. Faith gives them their working qualities. There is faith in the plowing of each furrow, faith in the sowing of the seed, faith in the planting of each tree, and faith in the purchase of each machine. The farmer who builds a silo has faith that the products of the summer will bring joy and health to the winter. By faith he trans.m.u.tes the mountains of toil into valleys of delight. Through the eyes of faith he sees the work of his hands bringing in golden sheaves of health and gladness to his own and other homes.

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. In what ways is agriculture a typical study?

2. Why was its importance not realized until recently?

3. What educational agency in your state first reflected the need of scientific instruction in agriculture?

4. The study of agriculture in the public school was at first ridiculed.

Why? What is now the general att.i.tude toward it?

5. To what extent is the study of agriculture important in the city school? Is there another subject as important for the city school as agriculture is for the rural school?

6. Mention some school subjects that are closely related to agriculture.

Show how each is related to agriculture.

7. Is Luther Burbank's work to be regarded as botanical or as agricultural? Why? To which of these sciences do plant variation and improvement properly belong?

8. In many schools agriculture and domestic science are a.s.sociated in the curriculum. What have they in common to justify this?

9. In the chemistry cla.s.s in a certain school food products are examined for purity. How will this increase the pupils' knowledge of chemistry?

10. In a certain school six girls appointed for the day cook luncheon for one hundred persons, six other girls serve it, and six others figure the costs. Criticize this plan.

11. Show how some particular phase of agricultural instruction may function in agricultural practice.

12. What benefits accrue to a teacher from the study of a subject in its ramifications?

13. In what respects is agriculture a n.o.ble pursuit? Compare it in this respect with law. How does agriculture lead to the exercise of faith?

Teaching? Law? Electrical engineering?

CHAPTER XVII

THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY