375 
 
 l93<2 
 
 UNIVERSITY of iLUNOlS 
 
Course of Study 
 
 THE LHJfi,'!!Y OF THE 
 
 NOV % 1934 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 Rural Elementary Graded 
 
 Schools 
 
 STATE OF LOUISIANA 
 
 T. H. HARRIS 
 
 STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 
 
 1910. 
 
 Ramires & Jones 
 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 
 1910 
 
1 1 /V-c-f 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The following course of study is only the frame work of 
 the course it was proposed to issue at this time; the short 
 space of time allowed for this work and the other duties de- 
 volving upon the supervisor of elementary schools made it 
 necessary either to abandon the publication of the course for 
 the present session or issue it in this incomplete form. There- 
 fore no apologies will be offered for its shortcomings. 
 
 The work as here proposed not only assigns new duties to 
 . the rural school, omitting much of its former work, but goes 
 ^ further than that in assuming that it exists for quite another 
 purpose than to provide its pupils with a certain amount of 
 ^°“book learning.” It assumes that the business of the country 
 school is to enable the child to so understand and interpret 
 his environment, the social, industrial, economic, political, and 
 other factors, that he will thereby become a better citizen and 
 more efficient worker for himself. Such a school, it is assumed, 
 should be an institution of the country, as well as in it, and 
 its first duty should be to make whatever contributions are 
 within its limitations towards the welfare of its individual 
 members and the general uplift of the community. It should 
 be a kind of clearing house of knowledge and information about 
 any and everything that affects, in a vital manner, the welfare 
 of the community; its subject matter should consist of what- 
 ever facts of importance may belong to the community, their 
 relative values and relations. 
 
 It is not believed that the elementary grades is the place 
 to teach the static subjects at any time; when the child knows 
 his community in detail, as it affects him and his associates, 
 and then learns much of other places, people, events, etc., that 
 are related in a vital manner to him and his community, 
 through his knowledge of local conditions, he has gained the 
 habit of study that will enable him to develop into his greatest 
 ability. This is true, because whatever he may read or study 
 will have meaning and value for him in direct proportion to 
 his power to interpret it through his experiences ; if his knowl- 
 . . edge and experiences have been rich and extensive, he will 
 assimilate much that he reads and hears. 
 
4 
 
 The need today is not for means of gaining information, 
 but for the desire to gain it and the ability to appropriate 
 and assimilate those things which may be of help; the means 
 in the way of high schools, colleges, universities, magazines, 
 extension courses, books, travel, etc., are available to a large 
 extent for all; if the school aids the child in arousing the 
 desire for knowledge that will be of worth to him, and gives 
 him the power to interpret and assimilate it, its mission is 
 accomplished. We believe the present kind of course will come 
 more nearly doing this than has been possible heretofore. 
 
 The belief in the mission of the rural school as outlined 
 above accounts for the introduction, of tool work, household 
 practice, gardening, community study, and the elimination of 
 much that seemed to have little bearing on the relationship 
 existing between the child and his surroundings. A test of 
 the course will prove either the truth and value of this, or 
 demonstrate its falsity. 
 
 While this course is prepared specially for graded rural 
 schools, teachers will find it comparatively easy to adapt it to 
 one-room schools, by combining and alternating classes. 
 
 Because of its radical differences from previous courses, it 
 will be difficult or impossible to follow the present course in 
 its entirety; it is also rendered difficult because of the fact 
 that its various elements have not yet been well adjusted. 
 When completed later, it is hoped that many of the obstacles 
 may be removed. 
 
 This course is to be used jointly with the course now in 
 use, in so far as the present course does not conflict in spirit 
 or content with this course. In other words, the present course 
 is to be used as a supplement to this one. 
 
 It is hardly desirable to attempt to carry out the course 
 as outlined for another reason: popular sentiment with ref- 
 erence to what. the school should do will probably not favor 
 so great . a change in the work of the school. Teachers and 
 superintendents are advised to inaugurate the course in only 
 such schools as have conditions favorable for its success; in 
 ether schools, certain features, community study, tool work, etc., 
 may provide an opening whereby the entire course may be fol- 
 lowed later. 
 
 The course of study for the rural schools of Vermont has 
 
offered many valuable suggestions, found herein in a modified 
 form. Credit for other ideas cannot well be given, since they 
 have come from many sources. 
 
 In conclusion, it might be said that any measure of sue* 
 cess will be due to the reception given the course by the teachers 
 who are to follow it; their attitude, preparation for the new 
 subjects, and general ability will either cause the work to suc- 
 ceed or fail. We hope they may approach it with open minds 
 and willing hearts, always looking to the best interests of the 
 children in their charge, . rather than to the ease with which 
 it may be followed. 
 
 EQUIPMENT FOR RURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 % 
 
 Kit of carpenter’s tools. 
 
 Apparatus for teaching household practice. 
 
 Set of gardening tools. 
 
 Babcock milk tester. 
 
 Cases for specimens collected in community study. 
 
 Atlas, globe, dictionary, encyclopedia, blackboards. 
 
 Apparatus for science work above seventh grade. 
 
 All available bulletins and publications of State and United 
 States bearing on agriculture, gardening, tool work, household 
 practice, sanitation, etc. (There are many good ones). 
 
 Sand table, thermometer, supplies for all industrials. 
 
 Libraries. 
 
 Books on farming, plans for home and farm buildings, plans 
 for beautifying same, catalogues for home furnishings, of farm 
 machinery of all kinds. 
 
 Types of improved machinery loaned for exhibition and 
 demonstration purposes, farm and home. 
 
 WHAT THE SCHOOL CAN DO FOR THE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Test all kinds of seed for fertility. 
 
 Test milk of all cows in community and determine paying 
 ones. 
 
 Have exhibition days for crops, live stock, etc., at school. 
 
 Organize clubs for girls, women, or men for social or eco- 
 nomic purposes. 
 
 Encourage farmers to bring statements concerning condition 
 
6 
 
 of crops, stock, etc., to school for discussion as to the scientific 
 reasons underlying them. 
 
 Furnish early plants and cuttings from school hotbed. 
 
 PICTURES AND DEALERS. 
 
 For ungraded schools, a selection of pictures can easily be 
 
 made from the following list: 
 
 Washington Stuart 
 
 Sir Galahad Watts 
 
 Holy Grail pictures Abbey 
 
 Baby Stuart Yan Dyck 
 
 Madonna of the Chair Raphael 
 
 Member of the Humane Society Landseer 
 
 The Blacksmith Frere 
 
 Escaped Cow Dupre 
 
 At the Watering Trough... . Dagnon-Bouveret 
 
 The Lion, or King of the Desert Bonheur 
 
 The Haymaker Adam 
 
 The Sower Millet 
 
 The Gleaners Millet 
 
 By the Riverside *. Lerolle 
 
 Spring Carot 
 
 Caritas Thayer 
 
 St. Marks 
 Notre Dame 
 Durham Cathedral 
 Acropolis 
 
 Pyramid and Sphinx 
 
 The Longfellow Pictures 
 
 The following dealers in prints and photographs of various 
 kinds probably would be willing to assist teachers in selecting 
 suitable pictures for schoolroom decorations: 
 
 A. W. Elson & Co Boston 
 
 The Perry Picture Co Boston 
 
 The Prang Educational Co Boston 
 
 Horace K. Turner Co Boston 
 
 Bigelow and Jordan Boston 
 
 (From Course of Study for Elementary Schools — Vermont.) 
 
7 
 
 SUGGESTIVE PROGRAMS. 
 
 DAILY PROGRAM FIVE-GRADE RURAL SCHOOL. 
 
 Opening exercises 9 :00 to 9:10 
 
 Reading, first grade 9:10 “ 9 :25 
 
 Reading, second grade 9 :25 “ 9 :40 
 
 Reading, third grade 9:40 “ 9:55 
 
 Nature Study and Handwork, first and second 
 
 grades 9:55 “ 10:05 
 
 Community Study, fifth grade 10 :05 “ 10 :25 
 
 Gardening, fourth and fifth grades 10:25 “ 10:45 
 
 Recess 10:45 “ 10:55 
 
 Reading, first grade 10:55 “ 11:05 
 
 Reading, second grade 11:05 “ 11:15 
 
 Reading, fourth grade 11:15 “ 11:30 
 
 Reading, fifth grade 11:30 “ 11:45 
 
 Writing, all grades together 11:45 “ 12:00 
 
 Noon 12:00 “ 1:00 
 
 Singing, all grades together 1:00 “ 1:10 
 
 Reading, first grade 1:10 “ 1:25 
 
 Reading, second grade 1 :25 “ 1 :40 
 
 Reading, third grade 1:40 “ 1:55 
 
 Reading, fourth grade 1:55 “ 2:10 
 
 Spelling, third, fourth and fifth grades 2 :10 “ 2:30 
 
 Recess 2:30 “ 2:40 
 
 Nature Study and Handwork, third and fourth 
 
 grades 2:40 “ 2:55 
 
 Physiology, Hygiene and Sanitation, fifth grade. 2:55 “ 3:10 
 
 Household Practice, Tool Work, alternating.... 3:10 “ 3:40 
 
 DAILY PROGRAM SEVEN-GRADE RURAL SCHOOL. 
 
 Grades One , Two , Three and Four. 
 
 Opening exercises 9:00 to 9:10 
 
 Reading, first grade 9:10 “ 9 :25 
 
 Reading, second grade 9:25 “ 9 :40 
 
 Reading, third grade 9 :40 ‘ ‘ 10 :00 
 
 Spelling, third and fourth grades 10:00 “ 10:20 
 
 Gardening, fourth grade 10:20 “ 10:45 
 
 Recess 10:45 “ 10:55 
 
 Reading, first grade 10:55 “ 11:10 
 
 Reading, second grade 11:10 “ 11:25 
 
8 
 
 Reading, fourth grade 11:25 “ 11:45 
 
 Writing, all grades together 11:45 “ 12:00 
 
 Noon 12:00 “ 1:00 
 
 Singing, all grades together 1:00 “ 1:15 
 
 Reading, first grade 1:15 “ 1:30 
 
 Reading, second grade 1 :30 “ 1:45 
 
 Reading, third grade 1 :45 “ 2 :00 
 
 Nature Study and Handwork, first and second 
 
 grades 2:00 “ 2:15 
 
 Nature Study and Handwork, third and fourth 
 
 grades 2:15 “ 2:30 
 
 Recess , 2 :30 ‘ J 2 :40 
 
 Reading, first grade 2 :40 “ 3 :00 
 
 Reading, second grade . 3 :00 “ 3 :20 
 
 Reading, fourth grade 3:20 “ 3 :45 
 
 Grades Five, Six and Seven. 
 
 Opening exercises 9 :00 to 9:10 
 
 Reading, fifth grade 9:10 “ 9 :30 
 
 Community Study, seventh grade 9 :30 “ 10 :00 
 
 Spelling, fifth, sixth and seventh grades. ...... .10:00 “ 10:20 
 
 Gardening, fifth, and sixth grades; agriculture, 
 
 seventh grade 10:20 “ 10:45 
 
 Recess 10:45 “ 10:55 
 
 Reading and Language, sixth grade 10:55 “ 11:10 
 
 Physiology, Hygiene and Sanitation, fifth grade. .11 :10 “ 11 :30 
 
 Household Practice, sixth and seventh grades, 
 
 alternate 11 :30 11 12 :00 
 
 Noon 12:00 “ 1:00 
 
 Singing, all grades together 1:00 “ 1:10 
 
 Reading and Language, seventh grade 1:10 “ 1:30 
 
 Community Study, sixth grade 1 :30 ‘ ‘ 1 :55 
 
 Louisiana History and Civics, alternate, .seventh 
 
 grade 1:55 “ 2:30 
 
 Recess 2:30 “ 2:40 
 
 Industrial Geography, sixth grade 2 :40 “ 3 :05 
 
 Arithmetic, sixth and seventh grades, alternately. 3:05 “ 3:20 
 
 Tool Work, fifth, sixth and seventh grades, com- 
 bined ... 3:20 “ 3:45 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF WORK BY GRADES. 
 
 First Grade— Reading, Writing, Nature Study and Handwork. 
 
9 
 
 Second Grade. — Reading, Writing, Nature Study and Handwork. 
 
 Third Grade. — Reading, Writing, Spelling, Nature Study and 
 Handwork. 
 
 Fourth Grade. — Reading, Writing, Spelling, Nature Study and 
 Handwork. 
 
 Fifth Grade. — Reading, Spelling, Physiology and Sanitation, 
 Community Study, Gardening, Tool Work (boys), House- 
 hold Practice (girls). 
 
 Sixth Grade. — Reading, Spelling, Arithmetic, Industrial Geog- 
 raphy, Community Study, Gardening, Tool Work (boys), 
 Household Practice, (girls). 
 
 Seventh Grade. — Reading, Spelling, Arithmetic, Louisiana His- 
 tory, Civics, Community Study, Gardening, Tool Work 
 (boys), Household Practice (girls). 
 
 READING. 
 
 The chief business of the school during the first four years 
 of the child’s attendance is to teach him to read and write; 
 the writing requires a comparatively short time to learn, prac- 
 tice being the essential thing to legibility and speed. There- 
 fore this course provides that the major portion of the child’s 
 time in the lower grades shall be devoted to the subject of read- 
 ing. Teachers should allow 7 no other subject to rival reading 
 in importance during these early school years, with the idea 
 of having the children at the end of the fourth year able to 
 read with ease and understanding. They should also have 
 covered much ground during this time, having read mostly of 
 those things within the range of their environment, experiences 
 and interests. 
 
 This will include, besides, stories and books relating to fa- 
 miliar subjects, a wide range into mythology, biography and 
 stories of adventure. During the third, fourth and fifth years 
 the child should become acquainted with enough mythical and 
 historical characters and events to have laid the basis for a 
 study of chronological history later on. Teachers will observe 
 that history as a special subject is omitted during these early 
 years, but it is expected that the children will get the founda- 
 tion for it, together w T ith many of its most relatively important 
 facts, in the reading course. 
 
10 
 
 Teachers will require, if the} r follow the intent of this 
 course, extensive reading during the third, fourth and fifth 
 years; if it is not required, too little of it may be done. It is 
 not necessary, nor best, to have a definitely arranged course of 
 supplementary reading, applicable to all pupils alike; individ- 
 ual tastes should be followed in so far as seems profitable. 
 
 While biography, mythology, and stories of adventure may 
 not seem to be in keeping with the principle so often expressed 
 throughout this course ; to stay within the child’s environment 
 and experiences, such is really the case. He is developing by 
 studying and imitating the people and things about him; the 
 study of these subjects allows a larger field for observation 
 and imitation; persons will always be within his experiences, 
 and therefore these subjects herein mentioned, pertaining to 
 the actions of people, mythical or real, are near to him. 
 
 It is also thought that such an extensive course of reading 
 required of children, wfill serve as a splendid foundation for a 
 study of literature later on, either in the high school or out of 
 school. There is a time when literature, for its own sake, should 
 receive attention, but in the elementary grades there are so 
 many other things of pressing and immediate importance, that 
 literature must receive attention only as it relates to other sub- 
 jects indicated in the course. 
 
 The supplementary reading list given herein does not include 
 the names of many books on mythology, adventure, or biogra- 
 phy, but it is thought that the teachers are already so well ac- 
 quainted with such books that they may select them from the 
 libraries without special instruction or suggestion here. 
 
 There should be a great amount of memorizing^ done in the 
 lower grades, the selections being taken from stories or poems 
 appealing strongly to the children. 
 
 Teachers wfill have observed ’that no provision in the ele- 
 mentary grades is made for language or grammar; that is, no 
 period is set aside for them each day. 
 
 In connection with the reading particularly, and other sub- 
 jects in less proportion, there wili be much composition work. 
 Pupils will learn, in the lower grades, rules for punctuation, 
 capital letters, etc., incidentally, as the need for their use arises ; 
 teachers will call attention to language in good form, wherever 
 
11 
 
 it may be ; they will correct errors in speech, and encourage good 
 expression in the class and out of it. 
 
 This course assumes that language is a very important sub- 
 ject, in so far as it tends to fix the habits of a correct use of 
 English; it also assumes that this can be as well done in con- 
 nection with the other class-room work and play of the school 
 as if it received a special period a day to itself. This is simply 
 following out the idea expressed so many times in this course, 
 that children learn more easily and remember with more cer- 
 tainty such things as have been taught at times when a present 
 need demanded the necessary knowledge, than if taught as an 
 end within themselves. Teachers, then, will teach all the neces- 
 sary forms for correct speech and writing. 
 
 Formal elements of grammar have no place in an elementary 
 course; pupils are not sufficiently developed to get very much 
 from its study, and if they were, there are so many other 
 subjects which relate in vital ways to their welfare, that the 
 time spent on formal grammar is not used to the best advan- 
 tage. If a knowledge of technical grammar were necessary to 
 a correct use of English, which is not true, it should be included 
 in the course. 
 
 For further general directions as to the importance of 
 this subject, suggestions as to the use of books, aim in 
 the different grades, and methods of procedure, see pp. 17, 18, 
 19, as well as other pages of the present adopted course for 
 elementary grades. 
 
 FIRST GRADE. 
 
 Texts: Wheeler’s Primer and Wheeler’s First Reader or 
 New JEducation Readers, Books I and II. 
 
 Supplementary Reading: Overall Boys; Sunbonnet Babies; 
 Hiawatha Primer; Book of Nature Myths; Animals Wild and 
 Tame; Earth and Sky, Vol. I; From September to June; 
 Household Science Reader, Book I ; Household Stories ; Nature 
 Study Readers, Books I and II ; Seaside and Wayside, Yol. I ; 
 Stories of Tree Top and Meadow; Stories of Plant Life; Round 
 the Year in Myth and Song; etc. 
 
 To be read by teacher: Fables, fairy tales, myths, poems, 
 stories, etc., relating to things within the children’s experience 
 and environment and appealing to his deeper interests, but 
 
12 
 
 expressed in language too difficult for children to easily com 
 prehend. 
 
 SECOND GRADE. 
 
 Texts: Wheeler’s Second Reader, and Our Feathered 
 Friends. 
 
 Supplementary Reading: Lovejoy’s Nature and Verse; 
 Round the Year in Myth and Song; Animal Life; Aunt Mar- 
 tha’s Corner Cupboard; Autobiography of a Butterfly; Brooks 
 and Brook Basins; Jeffries’ Sir Bevis; Leaves From Nature’s- 
 Story Book, Book I ; Old .Mother. Earth ; On the Farm ; Plant 
 Baby and Its Friends; Stories from Birdland, Vol. I; Stories 
 of Insect Life; Through the Year, Books I and II; etc. 
 
 To be read by teacher: See suggestions for first grade. 
 
 THIRD GRADE. 
 
 Texts: Brumbaugh’s Standard Third Reader and Alice's 
 Adventures in Wonderland. 
 
 Supplementary Reading: Around the World, Book II; 
 Friends in Feather and Fur; Friends and Helpers; Science 
 Reader, Vol. II ; Seaside and Wayside, Vol. II ; Sea Stories for 
 Wonder Eyes; Stories From Birdland, Vol. II; Storyland of 
 Stars; Ways o f Woodfolk; Wings and Stings; Seven Little 
 Sisters; Some Useful Animals; Pets and Companions; Ten 
 Common Trees ; Stories From Garden and Field ; Stories Mother 
 Nature Told Her Children ; Animals at Home ; Stories of Coun- 
 try Life; Familiar Animals and Their Wild Kindred; Chatty 
 Readings in Elementary Science; Little Flower People; Eyes 
 and No Eyes; etc. 
 
 Reading outside of class should be compulsory and exten- 
 sive, beginning with this session. It should include much of 
 biography, travel and along lines related to the industries, and 
 interests of the community. 
 
 FOURTH GRADE. 
 
 Texts: Brumbaugh’s Standard Fourth Reader, Part II; 
 Black Beauty; and Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 Supplementary Reading : Hiawatha ; Arabian Nights ; The 
 Wonder Book; Fifty Famous Stories Retold; Old Stories of 
 the East; Stories of Great Americans; Little Lame Prince; 
 Old Greek Folk Stories ; Greek Heroes ; Norse Stories ; Heroes 
 
13 
 
 of Asgard; Seigfried; Myths of Northern Lands; Readings in 
 Folk Lore; King of the Golden River; Old Testament Stories; 
 Bird World; Friends and Helpers; Hans Andersen Stories; 
 First Book of Birds; Tales of Troy; Through the Looking 
 Glass; Open Sesame, Vols. I and II; Stories of the Old World; 
 Each and All; Legends o f the Red Children; American In- 
 ventions and Inventors'; Living Creatures of Water, Land and 
 Air; Gulliver’s Travels; Famous Men Series; Some Curious 
 Flyers, Creepers and Swimmers, Pioneer series; Butterflies and 
 Bees; Home Life with Animals; How We Are Clothed; How 
 We Are Fed; Child and Nature; etc. 
 
 Outside reading should be even more extensive, but of the 
 nature suggested for third grade. 
 
 fifth grade. 
 
 Texts: Brumbaugh’s Standard Fifth Reader; Stories of 
 Industry, Vols. I and II. 
 
 Supplementary Reading : Squirels and Other Fur Bearers ; 
 Water Babies; Little* Daffydowndilly ; Ten Boys; Tales of 
 Chivalry; Little Men; Little Women; Neighbors with Wings 
 and Fins; Half Hours with Lower Animals; Half Hours 
 with Fishes; Leaves from Nature’s Story Book, Vol. Ill; Se- 
 crets of the Woods; Reptiles and Birds; Short Stories of Our 
 Shy Neighbors ; Little Cousin series ; Little Journey series ; etc. 
 
 By this time children should be able to read quite readily 
 and might cover much reading matter ; their tastes should be. 
 consulted in so far as they do not run to anything which might 
 hold up improper or impossible standards. During this period 
 children should be laying a- broad foundation, getting some 
 knowledge of many things and thus broadening their interests. 
 It is questionable whether classics on themes not appealing 
 strongly to the nature of children of this age should be recom- 
 mended just for the sake of literary style. 
 
 SIXTH GRADE. 
 
 • Texts : Birds and Bees ; Sharp Eyes ; Real Things in Na- 
 ture; and How the World Is Fed. 
 
 See list of adopted library books for this grade for sup- 
 plementary reading. Selections should be made of such read- 
 ing material as will appeal strongly to children’s interests and 
 
u 
 
 at the same time have a relation, more or less vital, with ani- 
 mals, plants, activities, conditions, or phenomena within the 
 experience of the children. The extensive reading of this grade 
 should tend to lead the children through those things within 
 their own experience out into the world about them; in other 
 words, previous reading was for the purpose of extending and 
 intensifying the experiences of the children ; now they begin to 
 be interested in things and people regardless of space or time; 
 they are becoming adults in respect to their interests and atti- 
 tudes. Their reading from this time on should tend to show 
 them the relation of their community and themselves to other 
 people and other countries, past and present, and should branch 
 out along several lines : literature, history, commerce, industries 
 and products. It should tend to make them broad-minded and 
 give them a more just appreciation of their place and the place 
 of their community in the outside world. 
 
 SEVENTH GRADE. 
 
 Texts : Curry ’s Literary Readings and Succession of Forest 
 Trees. 
 
 Supplementary Reading : See suggestions for preceding 
 grade. While some of the reading material might be of a nature 
 unrelated to the environment of the pupils, yet in a general 
 way reading in this grade, also, should help pupils to adjust 
 themselves and their community to their proper relations with 
 other people and other countries. Enough classical literature 
 should be read to form a taste for this kind of reading, the 
 taste of pupils being followed as to what shall be read in so 
 far as possible. Whatever they like to read does have a close 
 relation to experiences of their own, whether we think so or not. 
 
 SPELLING. 
 
 This subject is well outlined in the course used at present. 
 It is recommended that the larger proportion of the words for 
 each recitation be selected from the other subjects of the day, 
 placed on the board for study, learned and recited for the daily 
 recitation. Should the number selected in this way be found 
 insufficient, additional words should be assigned from the texts 
 adopted. Words learned at the time there is a motive for know- 
 
15 
 
 ing them, are learned more readily and remembered with greater 
 certainty; further than that, it seems a waste of time to some 
 extent to teach words that are not very likely to be of practical 
 use. While the adopted text is especially good in having words 
 of that kind, yet those needed in community study, reading, etc., 
 will be found more valuable. 
 
 The suggestive programs provide for several classes reciting 
 at once. This can and has been done with great success, r>y 
 arranging them in rows by classes and assigning words rapidly 
 to class after class; when the words are written, it is very 
 easy to do this, and’ in oral spelling the pupils of each class, 
 rather than the teacher, might be held responsible for the cor- 
 rect spelling of each word. While the plan, of course, is not 
 quite as satisfactory as to have separate classes, yet in consid- 
 eration of the time saved, it is preferable. Teachers will dis- 
 cover that they can soon hear two or three classes at a time 
 almost as easily as one. 
 
 ARITHMETIC. 
 
 No provision is made for arithmetic as a special subject 
 until the sixth grade. Many of the best authorities say that 
 pupils will learn the essentials of the subject in a year or two 
 if postponed until they reach that age when the mental faculties 
 are sufficiently developed to readily comprehend it. This is 
 the chief reason for omitting the subject as a special until that 
 time. Another reason is that we have been in the habit of teach- 
 ing much more arithmetic than is needed. Few subjects, if 
 any, provide such opportunities for the elimination of sub-topics. 
 Arithmetic has lost its one-time standing among educators as 
 a means for developing mental power and ability applicable 
 along other lines; one may be excellently trained in arithmetic 
 and yet the mental traits of reasoning, judgment, etc., shown 
 there, will not be applicable to other lines of mental effort. Its 
 value as a subject in the curriculum is not nearly so great as 
 practice has led us to believe. It is thought that the time 
 usually given to arithmetic will prove more valuable devoted 
 to some of the industrials included here. 
 
 While arithmetic has been given no separate place in the 
 
16 
 
 course, yet it is expected that pupils will get much arithmetic 
 from other subjects in the curriculum. There will hardly be 
 a recitation that affords no opportunity for some mathematics. 
 
 Community Study is made up largely of arithmetic ; draw- 
 ing scale maps, comparing relative sizes, values, etc. ; taking 
 the census called for, listing plants and animals, studying the 
 economic side as suggested; transportation, study of industries, 
 etc., all are bound up with arithmetic. 
 
 Tool Work, Gardening, Household Practice are all full of 
 arithmetic. Measuring, making mechanical drawings, estimate 
 ing quantities of material, etc. ; area of garden plots, value of 
 fertilizer and products, yields, value of time used, measure- 
 ments, etc. ; measurements of cloth, estimates of materials, 
 amount of fuel, recipes, the economic side of the subject, etc. 
 All of these abound in and are essentially a part of mathematics. 
 They cannot be taught without at the same time giving a good 
 part of the time to arithmetic, and the subject will be more 
 easily learned and more readily applied to practical affairs for 
 being learned as the necessity for certain phases or processes 
 arises. 
 
 This, then, is the plan proposed : to have all problems in 
 mathematics arising from any other subject of the course, pro- 
 vide the arithmetic for grades up to sixth. There will be much 
 of it, as much fully as there should be of arithmetic in these 
 lower grades. To be sure, the amount will vary day to day 
 as the amount of mathematical features of other subjects vary, 
 but there will be some arithmetic connected with almost every 
 recitation. 
 
 The teacher should teach rules for addition, subtraction, 
 multiplication, division, as the necessity for this knowledge 
 arises in connection with some other subject. Problems or por- 
 tions of problems too difficult for the class in which they arise 
 will be assigned to pupils . with ability to do them. There 
 will be no attempt to indicate the pupils’ standing in school 
 by their ability in arithmetic as is now too often the case. 
 
 We will note one exception to this general rule: the tables 
 for multiplication should be formally taught about the fourth 
 or fifth grade; they will require little time and need no ex- 
 planations for they are purely mechanical and require memory 
 only. Beginning with the sixth grade, teachers should have 
 
17 
 
 pupils make problems based on conditions existing in some 
 phase of an industrial, largely for the purpose of understand- 
 ing the mechanical processes required to solve them; no prob- 
 lem is to be proposed, however, whose solution does not lead 
 to some valuable economic knowledge of some sort, and which 
 is not called for by the conditions being studied by the class. 
 
 Arithmetic is not to be omitted, then, but will receive atten- 
 tion incidental to other subjects, little effort being made to 
 introduce it to any extent in the lower grades. It will not be 
 taught at any time for its supposed value as a means of im- 
 proving the mental powers along other lines, but simply for 
 the purpose of having pupils get enough of it to enable them 
 to solve readily whatever problems relating to actual life are 
 likely to confront them. Most of this will be done in the sev- 
 enth grade. 
 
 ' Teach whatever processes may be necessary in the ordinary 
 farmer’s business relations which have not already been learned 
 incidentally. No effort should be made to follow a text-book, 
 although such a book might be in the hands of pupils for ref- 
 erence as to methods of procedure. Wherever the “why” is 
 called for it should be answered ; otherwise, simply the process 
 is sufficient. 
 
 The work might include legal forms used in farmers’ busi- 
 ness; order forms; something of percentage and interest; sim- 
 ple fractions, common and decimal; some mensuration, etc. 
 Pupils will know much or most of this previous to seventh grade. 
 One period a day will be devoted to arithmetic in sixth and 
 seventh grades, alternating daily. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 Political, descriptive and physical geography are omitted 
 from this course, as special subjects, with the expectation that 
 community study, with the atlas and maps suggested as refer- 
 ences, will result in as much knowledge of this subject as can 
 be made much use of. Children, through community study, 
 should have a fairly accurate and useful knowledge of places 
 and people related to them or their community in any close 
 way; other geographical knowledge,, while worth something, is 
 
18 
 
 not considered as valuable as other subjects in the elementary 
 grades, and is therefore omitted. 
 
 We might note an exception: in one of the lower grades 
 children should be taught quite a number of geographical facts 
 of commonly accepted importance, as memory exercises. Ex- 
 amples: names of states, important rivers, largest cities, cap- 
 itals, etc. 
 
 In the sixth grade pupils begin the formal study of indus- 
 trial or commercial geography, as it is considered of far greater 
 value to them than either of the other phases of geography. 
 Any. good text will do for the present. It should be presented, 
 not in the order of the text, but in the order of its importance 
 and relation to the welfare of the child and community. It 
 should relate very closely to community study, being almost a 
 part of it. Incidental to this study, there will be learned an 
 immense amount of political and descriptive geography, enough 
 for all practical purposes. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 The formal study of Louisiana History will be taken up 
 in the seventh grade, with the texts and in the manner out- 
 lined in the present course; other formal history of the United 
 States and Europe will be postponed until the high school is 
 reached. This seems preferable for the reason that children 
 have already, in their reading course, become pretty well in- 
 formed about historical events, and are not sufficiently devel- 
 oped to make any deductions that will affect their conduct 
 until they are at the high school age. History is worth little 
 except for the lessons it teaches as to the value or injury result- 
 ing to nations from certain courses of action. Pupils must 
 have become mature enough to understand these causes and 
 results in about their full value before they get much from 
 the subject. 
 
 CIVICS. 
 
 The outline in the present course, as weir as the text, is con- 
 sidered excellent, and will be carried out in this course in the 
 
19 
 
 same maimer and in the same grade. Civics is one of the best 
 subjects of a school course and should be taught in such a man- 
 ner as will make the pupils more broad-minded and efficient 
 citizens. It might alternate in seventh grade with history. 
 
 NATURE STUDY AND HANDWORK. 
 
 The purpose of this work is to train the hand to obey the 
 mind accurately, give a foundation for the industrial work to 
 follow later, and to gain a clearer and fuller knowledge of the 
 environment by expressing certain phases of it through these 
 activities. 
 
 It will require but a short time daily for the teacher to 
 assist pupils in preparing materials, and in giving definite 
 instruction as to what is to be done; the work itself, usually, 
 may go on while other classes are reciting. Care should be 
 taken to assign such work to individual pupils as will interest 
 them and at the same time be easily executed. The practical 
 side of this work should predominate; that which promises 
 most useful results, and the various stages of the child’s devel- 
 opment must always be borne in mind. 
 
 The work for the first four grades of school is here given 
 together ; the topics suggested will indicate the nature of' the 
 work expected and teachers can subdivide it by grades, as 
 their judgment approves; they can also select much material 
 from the present adopted course and from other courses of 
 study, which can be presented from the point of view herein 
 indicated. With the teacher of initiative and resource, the 
 trouble will be to select only the best that suggests itself to 
 her, rather than to find a lack of suggestive work. 
 
 The following equipment is desirable : kindergarten scis- 
 sors, supply of paper, colored, white, cardboard, etc. ; blocks 
 (made by larger boys, perhaps), splints, sticks, spools, geo- 
 metric blocks, etc. ; twine, cotton thread, colored wrapping 
 twine, coarse needles, clay, such as may be obtained in the vicin- 
 ity, vines, rushes, pliable bark, grasses, reeds, wild cane, cigar 
 boxes, etc. Teachers will find an abundance of material ; pref- 
 erence must always be given to that available at first hand. In 
 fact, it is doubtful whether the intent of this course can be 
 
20 
 
 carried out by using purchased materials. Where a fairly 
 good quality of clay may be found in the community, it will 
 possibly serve as the best material, as it may be utilized for 
 so many purposes and provides such splendid educational op- 
 portunities for development of hand and brain. 
 
 The following is suggestive of what may be done: Clay 
 modeling of farm animals, implements, fruits, vegetables, build- 
 ings, plants, persons, etc., and using these models for drama- 
 tizing scenes from local life or history; tracing these same 
 things, or many of them, from designs prepared with the 
 teacher; constructing fences, playhouses, buildings, furniture, 
 boxes, picture frames, etc., from blocks, cardboard, thin wood, 
 reeds, etc. ; cutting from paper, upon which the designs have 
 been traced, or freehand, cutting the objects named above; 
 practice in stenciling designs of above, to be worked in with 
 large thread; weaving and braiding of mats, blankets, school 
 bags, baskets, picture frames, etc., from suitable materials ; mak- 
 ing book covers, dolls’ clothes, carpets, etc.; designing, cutting, 
 sewing, modeling scenes suggested either from reading lessons, 
 from community life, or activities of the children. The actual 
 objects should be present and the scenes portrayed, whenever 
 possible, before the handwork is done. 
 
 It is again suggested that the individual capabilities of 
 children and their interests should be more powerful factors in 
 determining what shall be attempted than anything else. It 
 should not be mandatory that all children do the same thing; 
 certain features of the work, for which some children are not 
 well fitted, should be omitted for them. Try to learn inherent 
 aptitudes for certain lines of nature study or handwork, and 
 develop them. Remember, too, that small children tire quickly, 
 so intersperse a liberal amount of play, out of doors usually, 
 with what is required at the seats. 
 
 Under this head would fall the subject of games; teach the 
 children many games involving the use of the body, limbs, fin- 
 gers, senses, etc. and requiring a knowledge of community life. 
 In fact, community life may be enriched by introducing games 
 which would naturally interest children but which also require 
 some knowledge not common to the community. It is proposed, 
 in this course, that the teacher assume charge of the playground 
 for younger pupils and direct their play in so far as she can 
 
21 
 
 without interfering with their originality and spontaneity. It 
 is believed that games are of greater educational value than 
 is the routine class work in the schoolroom. 
 
 Under the head of nature study will fall other things than 
 those just mentioned, although much of the above fulfills the 
 object of nature study: to assist the child to understand the 
 phenomena, most common to him. In addition to what has been 
 outlined, pupils might make a weather-vane, gather collections 
 of insects, and minerals; make excursions to note some definite 
 thing, usually into fields, meadows, woods, on bank of stream, 
 etc. ; note how animal and insect life is carried on in its nat- 
 ural state; go fishing, wild fruit or nut gathering; often on 
 an excursion for no definite purpose but to discover new things 
 and develop new lines of investigation. 
 
 The most important phase of the nature study work is an 
 explanation for much of the phenomena about the pupil which 
 neither he nor his parents well understand : things relating to 
 physics and mechanics. Any elementary school course will be 
 found suggestive. 
 
 Enough has been given to suggest the point of view to be 
 held in this work : to assist the children in adjusting themselves 
 to their environment, aid in developing the use of body and its 
 members, and provide an outlet for that natural tendency -of 
 the child toward activity. As has been said, teachers will find 
 abundant material for the . four first grades in the . preceding 
 pages, but they can add to these suggestions from many other 
 sources, particularly the course of study now in use. 
 
 This work should, in the fourth year, lead up to and con- 
 nect naturally with the community study and the industrials 
 of gardening, tool work and household practice; in fact, some 
 of the work herein indicated may profitably and properly con- 
 tinue into the fifth or even sixth grade. 
 
 SCHOOL GARDENING AND AGRICULTURE. 
 
 While the school gardening of this state has not been an en- 
 tire failure in the places where it has been attempted, yet, 
 with a few notable exceptions, the work has been of little value. 
 In many, or most cases, perhaps, the school garden was one 
 
22 
 
 of the poorest of the community, irregular in form, poorly pre- 
 pared for planting, cared for at odd times, which often resulted 
 in it being full of grass or weeds, and very often reflected dis- 
 credit on the attempt of teachers to handle this subject. 
 
 The causes for these poor results have been several: in the 
 first place, the average farmer knows more about the ordinary 
 vegetable garden than does the average teacher; he makes it 
 a part of his business to have his garden well cared for, while 
 the teacher has too often considered this work as purely inci- 
 dental, to receive such time from her and the pupils as might 
 not be used in classroom work. Neither has she had the knowl- 
 edge or experience necessary to insure a successful garden. 
 Then, again, it has been considered that the chief purpose of 
 the garden was to demonstrate scientific principles of plant 
 culture, most of which could be illustrated in a poor garden 
 about as well as a good one; the farmer, on the other hand, has 
 measured the success of this work by the appearance of the 
 garden, as have the children usually, and rightfully so. As a 
 consequence, school gardening has been considered of little 
 value by either pupils or parents. 
 
 That school gardening has a great value in the elementary 
 grades is true for several reasons, chief of which is the means 
 which it provides for demonstrating scientific principles of plant 
 culture; we cannot accomplish this, however, unless we change 
 our plans for the work. As long as the average school teacher 
 attempts to raise as good or better spring or summer garden 
 as the farmer of her community, who makes it his business, the 
 garden is doomed to disrepute ; it must either be abandoned and 
 experiments for demonstration purposes carried on in other 
 ways, or a new scheme devised whereby the garden at school 
 will deserve the respectful attention of the farmer. 
 
 This can be done, it is believed, by giving the garden a 
 place of importance in the course which it has rarely had ; it 
 must be considered as essential a part of the work of the pupils 
 as arithmetic, and must have its place on the program; the 
 garden must either present a good appearance as to arrange- 
 ment, proper planting and cultivation, etc., or not be attempted ; 
 should it deteriorate, it loses its value and should be destroyed. 
 A better feature yet, it seems, would be to teach the farmer 
 something he either does not know or does not practice about 
 
23 
 
 vegetable gardening. This seems difficult, but authorities tell 
 us it is not. For instance, the average farmer does not use hot 
 beds or cold frames; he does not get out such plants as cucum- 
 bers, watermelons, etc., as early in the spring as he might by- 
 pot planting; he has little or no winter garden, which is pos- 
 sible in Louisiana with about the same effort required to raise 
 a spring garden. If the school will attempt these things, which 
 he does not practice, it will not have to stand as a rival of 
 his spring garden, usually to its discredit, and it will serve to 
 demonstrate that there are things of material value about gar- 
 dening that he does not know. The principles of plant growth 
 can be as well illustrated in a winter garden as in a spring 
 garden. 
 
 This is the purpose of the course given here. It is not pro- 
 posed to plant spring and summer gardens to be left to the 
 grass and weeds at the close of school and which will compare 
 unfavorably with the best gardens of the community, but to 
 demonstrate the possibilities and use of cold frames, hot beds, 
 early pot planting, and the winter garden. If such can be done, 
 the school will be of real service to the farmer in a direct way, 
 as well as teach his boy that there is a reason underlying all the 
 farmer does, if he does it right. 
 
 The first avowed purpose must be to succeed in what is 
 attempted; if a garden is planted, it must be a good one; if 
 the hot bed and cold fraffies are to be used, they must pro- 
 duce the earlier vegetables. No scientific knowledge gained by 
 the boys will atone for a disreputable garden in a community 
 where one’s reputation depends largely upon the appearance 
 of his fields. It must be planned for, and worked with the 
 same conscientiousness which a teacher gives to reading, or any 
 other school subject. It should have as its first aim to teach 
 people of the community that they can have vegetabls all win- 
 ter, a variety of them, and that they can have tomatoes, melons, 
 etc., much earlier in the spring than they have been accustomed 
 to have them. That should be its aim with reference to the 
 community, so that the subject will gain a place in school work ; 
 with the pupils, the aim should be to demonstrate principles 
 of agriculture studied in class; they should be aware of the 
 first named aim and will take greater interest in the work if 
 they know the purpose is to do something their fathers have 
 
24 
 
 not been doing. The other aim should be incidental and sec- 
 ondary in the minds of pupils but important to the teacher. 
 If, by this means, we can gain the respectful attention of the 
 citizens and boys, agriculture will soon assume the place it de- 
 serves in the schools. 
 
 As may have been assumed by the foregoing, gardening 
 must not be attempted by a teacher who is not qualified to 
 teach it as outlined and who is not impressed with its im- 
 portance. It would be better to omit the subject from the 
 course rather than belittle it. The size of the ground, condi- 
 tion of the fence, quality. and condition of soil, number of boys, 
 equipment owned or available, attitude of parents, garden prac- 
 tice of the community, etc., will all be determining factors in 
 deciding what and how much shall be attempted in each com- 
 munity. 
 
 For the purposes set forth, a small garden will serve as 
 well as a large one, the size being sufficient to allow for possible 
 replanting or planting of additional quantities; the fence must 
 be stock proof; the soil must be put in such a state of culti- 
 vation as to insure success, and must be fertilized to its best 
 production; there must be tools available for use at the time 
 needed, and there must be means of insuring success along all 
 lines before attempting the work. A resourceful teacher will 
 provide these means, almost regardless of the condition she may 
 find at the school, if her heart is in this kind of work; if it 
 isn’t, she will fail anyway. 
 
 The equipment should consist of hoes, rakes, weeders, spades, 
 a wheelbarrow, manure fork and such other things as may be 
 had, depending upon the number of boys. In large schools 
 where a horse and plow may be had, there might be added 
 certain tools to be drawn by the horse. 
 
 This course does not propose to outline the scientific work 
 to be attempted in the sixth and seventh grades; little can be 
 done in the sixth, and the agriculture as already outlined for 
 seventh will run parallel to this work. The two grades should 
 work together in the garden and boys of sufficient age from 
 fifth or even fourth grades should be allowed to enter this 
 practice work; they may get the habit of correct culture with- 
 out understanding much of the theory for it. Pupils of the 
 
25 
 
 seventh, grade will carry on a scientific study of agricultural 
 principles. 
 
 Children must keep account of time and expense ; the profit 
 or loss to be determined. 
 
 Making the garden . — The soil must be put in first-class con- 
 dition early in the fall ; weeds and grass turned under well and 
 allowed to decay before pulverizing the soil for planting. Every 
 foot of the garden must be broken, up into the fence corners, 
 around stumps, etc. Before planting, the soil must be free of trash 
 of any kind and thoroughly porous and pulverized to a considera- 
 ble depth; in fact, this condition must exist immediately pre- 
 vious to the planting of any bed. Pupils will have learned the 
 first lesson in all kinds of cultivation when they learn this: 
 they will also learn that the land wasted by most farmers by 
 turn rows, fence borders, etc., totals a good amount and adds 
 to the unsightliness of the field. 
 
 Seed should be carefully selected and thoroughly tested for 
 germinating qualities before planting ; this is also essential. 
 They may be bought from reputable southern seed houses or a 
 few may be had from the departments of agriculture, state and 
 national. In any case, the quality of the seed must be assured, 
 and the varieties planted that are known to be adapted to the 
 purpose and soil. 
 
 As many of the following vegetables should be planted as 
 seem to promise success: cabbage, lettuce, turnips, rutabagas, 
 radishes, spinach, mustard, onions, shallots, culiflower, marrow- 
 fat peas, celery, parsley. 
 
 Many of these are raised by farmers of the state, but 
 few of them attempt to have them out the regular season. 
 Nearly all can be raised during winter months in almost any 
 part of the state in the open ; in any part, with little protection 
 from extreme temperatures. Some of these vegetables, while 
 of great value, are little known in certain localities. It would 
 be quite a service if we could introduce into a community one 
 new vegetable which added to the fare of its citizens during 
 months when there is usually little enough from the garden. 
 
 It is impracticable here to give instructions for the cultiva- 
 tion of each of these vegetables; the teacher will already know, 
 before planting them, the kind of soil they prefer, and the con- 
 ditions necessary for their growth. She must provide such 
 
26 
 
 means as may be necessary for the protection of any of them 
 during coldest weather. Little cultivation or attention to plants 
 is necessary in the winter, except to protect them from extremes 
 of temperature; this must be done, or it is useless to attempt 
 the work. The use of cold frames can be demonstrated in this 
 case as well as in the case of plants set out early in the spring. 
 
 The hot bed as a means for providing farmers with early 
 cabbage, tomato, pepper, and other plants; furnishing early 
 cuttings for sweet potatoes, and as a means for raising such 
 of the vegetables, heretofore mentioned, as may not grow read- 
 ily in the community, is one of the best features of the school 
 garden. If we can get farmers to consider hot beds just as 
 important as farm implements we would increase the influence 
 of the garden as well as add to the table fare. The boys of 
 the tool work class, if there be one, will make the frame work 
 for the bed; if the boys are not able to do this, .the teachers 
 can have some man of the community prepare the structure. 
 Great care must be taken to make the bed itself suitable for its 
 purpose ; it must have the right proportion of manure of the 
 right age; the soil must be in right quantities and of the qual- 
 ity suited to the plants which it is proposed to raise. It would 
 certainly be unwise for a teacher to attempt to have a hot bed 
 without having had experience with one, or have expert advice 
 easily available. Better omit it entirely. 
 
 In connection with this school gardening, it would be an 
 excellent idea to supply the community with early plants from 
 the school beds for their gardens ; a charge might reasonably 
 be made. The school should, as a proper and essential function, 
 test §eeds of the community, all kinds, for their germinating 
 qualities ; it should serve the community in as many other ways 
 as possible by performing services which the farmers, indi- 
 vidually, are unprepared to do. 
 
 Instead of individual plots in this work, it would perhaps 
 be better for the purpose in mind to have the class work to- 
 gether as a group. Recent observation has proven that excellent 
 work may be expected in this way, and it would likely prevent 
 the occurrence of unsightly patches in the garden, caused by 
 careless pupils. 
 
 For laboratory (indoor) work for sixth grade, nothing given 
 here will equal what may be had from the reprint from the 
 
27 
 
 Year Book, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1905, entitled 
 ‘ ‘ Illustrative Material in Rural Schools.” It is free and con- 
 tains the most valuable suggestions and instructions as to what 
 can be done in a small rural school, together with lists of appa- 
 ratus, costing little or nothing. No school can afford to be 
 without it. The suggestions contained in it along the line of 
 scientific principles will serve as an abundant supply for this 
 sixth grade. 
 
 For the study of scientific agriculture in the seventh grade, 
 the adopted text, in addition to pamphlets indicated herein, 
 will be foupd sufficient for reference. The outlines for this 
 subject in the course now in use are excellent and should be 
 followed as closely as is consistent and practicable. 
 
 References : Texts on gardening ; bulletins from U. S. and 
 State departments of agriculture (most valuable).; most aid 
 will be received from study of garden practices of the com- 
 munity and the possibilities of their improvement. Texts in 
 agriculture will furnish all suggestions necessary in teaching 
 the scientific side of the subject. 
 
 PHYSIOLOGY AND SANITATION. 
 
 The texts now in use should be followed, but the subject 
 carried through the fifth grade only. This can be done by 
 eliminating much of little value to pupils. The work, how- 
 ever, should be planned and taught from the point of view of 
 applying the facts learned by the class to conditions existing 
 at home, at school, or in the community; whatever seems to 
 have little bearing upon either of these might well be passed 
 over lightly, with the exception of a knowledge of the structure 
 and functions of the most important organs of the body. 
 
 An important part of this work should be the teaching of 
 the health and sanitation laws of the state and the rulings of 
 the State Board of Health ; such knowledge will be of far more 
 actual value than a memorized statement of the circulation of 
 the blood or a detailed description of the process of digestion. 
 Teachers should be careful to draw the line distinctly in their 
 own minds between what is of real immediate value to pupils 
 as coming citizens and what pertains more particularly to the 
 experts ( physicians ) . 
 
28 
 
 In addition to, or in place of, what is suggested in the texts, 
 pupils should be well informed about the following : The house- 
 fly and other insects as carriers of disease and infection ; meth- 
 ods of eradication; how infection comes about, how to disinfect 
 home and premises; symptoms, causes, prevention, treatment, 
 and seriousness of tuberculosis, typhoid, hook worm, and other 
 common and severe contagious and infectious diseases; plans 
 for sewer systems, value of them; proper location of wells, 
 toilets, etc., as applied to homes of the community; sources of 
 impure water ; general farm sanitation ; dangers of patent 
 medicines, etc. 
 
 DRAWING. 
 
 It is not thought advisable to set aside a recitation period 
 for drawing in the rural schools; neither does it seem best to 
 outline a course of study for this subject independent of other 
 work. This does not mean, however, that drawing is consid- 
 ered of small importance; it is an essential part of the work 
 in any course. It will perhaps receive as much attention, it 
 is believed, by being taught incidental to other subjects, as 
 if it had been assigned a period to itself and had a separate 
 course, and will even have greater value. 
 
 Community Study will furnish the means for much draw- 
 ing, almost enough for the course, if carried out as planned. 
 The maps, illustrations of plants and occasionally of animals, 
 sketches of sites, etc., furnish a strong motive and an excellent 
 means for drawing. 
 
 School Gardening will also provide for much drawing. The 
 garden plot is to be sketched and mapped out for the, season’s 
 work ; illustrations of implements, vegetables, etc. ; plans for 
 hot bed, etc., will all require work in drawing.. 
 
 Household Practice is rich in its possibilities for drawing; 
 patterns must be made; sketches for decorating and beautify- 
 ing home and grounds; designs for furniture, curtains, car- 
 pets, etc. ; designs for dresses, hats, etc. There will be discov- 
 ered many opportunities for having the girls develop skill and 
 originality in drawing incidental to the regular work of this 
 subject. 
 
29 
 
 Tool Work itself will be largely drawing. The plan for 
 everything made is to be drawn before the work begins ; almost 
 every, lesson will be in part a lesson in mechanical drawing, the 
 kind of most interest and value to the boys; they get little of 
 it in the regular course now; it would be better to have the 
 art side of the subject somewhat abbreviated than to have the 
 mechanical side omitted, as at present. 
 
 The foregoing are simply suggestions which any good teacher 
 can' use in a way that will give her pupils as much drawing as 
 they now have and as the subject deserves. Some days there 
 will be need for little or no drawing; other days the major 
 part of the recitation will consist of sketches, plans, designs, 
 etc. The subject will thus receive its due attention in this way. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Singing should be an essential feature of all school work. 
 The technique of music hardly seems of enough relative value 
 to be entitled to a place in rural school work of elementary 
 grades. Some of the theory might be taught incidental to the 
 rote songs learned, but as a technical subject it has been omitted 
 from this course. 
 
 There is provided a period each day, however, when all the 
 pupils of the school will sing songs; it will develop voices, and 
 act as a regulative of conduct. That is as much as is herein 
 provided for. 
 
 The teacher is to have pupils learn many songs by rote; 
 songs that appeal to the interests of children of the ages of those 
 taking part in them, and relating, as much as possible, to their 
 experiences and environment; these songs may be had from the 
 present texts on music and from many other sources. If the 
 community has a song or songs, provincial in character, they 
 would be taught also. In any case, the children should sing 
 each day as suggested. 
 
 TOOL WORK. 
 
 For Boys Between the Ages of 12 and 18 Years. 
 
 The object of this tool work is not to train for the trades 
 
30 
 
 nor lead to mechanical pursuits; it is simply for the purpose 
 of teaching the boys to become efficient in handling only the 
 ordinary carpenter’s tools, to the extent of being able to do 
 whatever tool work may later be necessary for them to do on 
 the farm in a substantial and creditable manner. By construct- 
 ing whatever is within their ability to do, among the needs of 
 their school, they should acquire this skill to some extent at 
 least; by maintaining fences, outbuildings, etc., in good repair 
 at school, they should have formed the habit of keeping up 
 the same things at home. A boy who has had tool work of 
 this kind for a year or two will be disinclined to pass through 
 the front grate at home several times a day when it hangs by 
 one hinge: he will be as much hurt by seeing the panels of 
 fence around the yard lean to one side and the other as he 
 will to see the corn taken by the grass. 
 
 This habit of desiring to maintain everything on the farm 
 in repair is one of the chief aims; another is to be able to dis- 
 cern between substantial and poor construction; if not able to 
 do everything needed on the farm, he should at least know the 
 characteristics of good construction work. 
 
 Besides the foregoing, tool work at the school should, to 
 some extent, satisfy the boy’s normal desire for activity along 
 useful lines. The school will thus get improvements which in 
 many cases it would do without, or which would cost the 
 school authorities considerable money. It might also often de- 
 velop or cultivate- tendencies of that occasional .boy who has no 
 taste or ability for abstract things, in books, and induce him 
 to go where he can get proper training for mechanical pur- 
 suits. 
 
 Tool work of the kind indicated cannot be successfully done 
 in schools where the teacher has not had some training in the 
 use of tools; to be valuable, the teacher must know the quali- 
 ties of good construction and have some considerable skill in 
 the use of tools. Every rural school, however, should have a 
 set of tools and use them as best they can; it can hardly be 
 called training, however, when the teacher has. little knowledge 
 of either the skillful use of tools or the character of good tool 
 work. 
 
 It will be found advisable to use the last period of the 
 afternoon for this work; perhaps the girls of the school will 
 
31 
 
 at the same hour be doing something in the way of sewing or 
 cooking. Much freedom of movement and speech should he 
 allowed. Ordinary classroom regulations are not applicable 
 to this work. 
 
 Since the aim of the practice is not to develop skilled 
 mechanics nor lead to the trade of carpenter, the technical or 
 scientific side of the work should not be stressed; skill in the 
 use of tools, the ability to recognize good work, speed in the use 
 of tools, and the habit of desiring to see everything about the 
 place in good repair, are the chief aims. However, whatever 
 technical knowledge may be necessary, at times, for the work 
 at hand, should be given, incidental to such work and for the 
 sole purpose of aiding in the particular piece of work being 
 done. It seems doubtful whether such technical instruction 
 should ever be given in this course apart from such immediate 
 need. 
 
 It seems advisable, in introducing this work into the ele- 
 mentary grades, not to classify boys according to grade, but to 
 allow all boys of sufficient age and maturity to enter the class; 
 the work should also be optional until its value is realized more 
 fully by pupils and parents. 
 
 The material should consist of whatever kind of lumber is 
 available and most commonly used in the community. The par- 
 ish school board will likely pay for whatever lumber may be 
 used in repairing and constructing buildings and furniture for 
 the school; pupils themselves should pay for whatever mate- 
 rials may be used in constructing such things for use in their 
 homes. It might be found that some saw mill of the commu- 
 nity would take enough interest in this work to furnish mate- 
 rials, since the value of them will not often be great. 
 
 If the school is in need of few repairs or little construction 
 work, the work hour should be utilized in making things for 
 the homes ; the tools should be used every day for about the 
 same length of time in any case. If there is little demand from 
 homes for work, there might be made models of fireless cook- 
 ers, sinks for kitchen use, etc. ; things that farm homes need 
 but are not usually supplied with. In this way, their use might 
 be encouraged. 
 
 The cost of this work need not be great. While a ready- 
 made workbench might be best for beginning, yet an inexpensive 
 
32 
 
 bench might be made by the teacher and boys; if their ability 
 is not thought to be sufficient for this at first, a long plank 
 laid across the tops of desks might serve for a while, pupils 
 standing in the aisles. 
 
 The amount of tool equipment may be determined by refer- 
 ring to the following: 
 
 General tools : bit brace, set of augur and gimlet bits, set 
 of chisels. 
 
 One for each four to six boys: 6 " try square, marking 
 gauge, 20" cross cut saw, 20" rip saw. 
 
 One for each two to four boys: 14" jack plane, 12 oz. claw 
 hammer, 1" chisel, 10" back saw, jointed ruler, hatchet, oil 
 stone. 
 
 The above is about the minimum equipment with which it 
 may be expected to do much work; it would be better if some 
 of the following could be added: T square, screwdrivers, bevel, 
 spirit level, cold chisel, wood rasp, hand ax, drawing knife, 
 grindstone and other tools needed for the particular kind of 
 material or the particular piece of work at hand. The teacher 
 should select the list of tools. 
 
 Suggestive work: Tool racks, walks, fences, steps, sheds for 
 horses or transfers, outbuildings, benches, shelves, tables, plain 
 book cases, other cases, vine trellises, cold frames, hot beds, 
 gates, ladders, hitching racks, water troughs, plain chairs, wheel- 
 barrow for garden use, plant boxes, etc. ; reading tables, cases, 
 ironing boards, settees, benches, swings window seats, stands, 
 etc., for the home. The usefulness and simplicity of the article 
 should be the determining factors in deciding as to whether 
 it shall be attempted. Pupils should be consulted as to what 
 they consider urgent needs and as far as possible the teacher 
 should have such things made; pupils will soon learn to be 
 careful not to select articles requiring skill beyond that pos- 
 sessed by them. 
 
 HOUSEHOLD PKACTICE. 
 
 The object of this course is to teach girls of rural and vil- 
 lage communities what may be done in the way of improving 
 the present methods of cooking, sewing and general housekeep- 
 ing, and how these things may be most efficiently and econom- 
 
33 
 
 ically done. The same work would be equally valuable for girls 
 of towns or cities, and it is being done in many schools of the 
 North and East. It does not propose to be a course in Domestic 
 Science, for the scientific side of sewing and cooking will re- 
 ceive little attention; girls of the age of those who will take 
 this course are not mature enough to understand the reasons 
 for many excellent household practices which they may learn 
 to follow with skill and precision. It is more a course of simple 
 instruction than one of scientific value. They can be taught to 
 do practically everything about the home in the way of sewing, 
 cooking or housekeeping without understanding that there is 
 a science underlying them. Our best housekeepers of today 
 are simply skilled in the practice without knowing the science. 
 To be sure, the scientific and economic side is valuable and 
 should be learned later, and will be, perhaps, in the high school 
 course; a short course of this kind would likely induce many 
 girls to take a high school course who would otherwise never 
 appreciate the possibilities and value of such a subject. We 
 believe that the scientific course following this practical course 
 will prove more valuable than it would be otherwise, because 
 the natural method has always been to follow up the art with 
 the science ; a science is unknown until the art has developed. 
 
 While many suggestions are given as to what might be 
 included in the course, it is understood that the teacher will 
 make a study of the community, as to the general knowledge of 
 housekeeping, .and make such selections from among the things 
 herein suggested as will best supply the most important needs 
 of the home; for instance, it will be discovered that in certain 
 communities the cooking is quite good, but few know much of 
 sewing; another community may have the conditions reversed. 
 In some localities, the housekeepers understand how to care for 
 milk and make good butter; another community in the same 
 parish may be lacking in this knowledge. The teacher must 
 give time and stress in proportion to the need of the particular 
 topic or phase under consideration, as applied to her particular 
 community. 
 
 It is necessary to observe much caution in dealing with 
 these subjects in order that housekeepers may not receive the 
 impression that the teacher thinks them ignorant ; she might 
 speak of her methods as simply “ another way of doing it.” 
 
34 
 
 As in the case of tool work, no teacher should attempt to 
 teach this work unless she has had some considerable training 
 for it; while the scientific side need not be taught to any 
 extent, yet it is necessary for the teacher to know much of the 
 science in order to direct practice along scientific lines; this 
 refers particularly to cooking. In the sewing and general house- 
 keeping, a scientific knowledge is not so essential. Teachers 
 can get many suggestions and much help from texts on home 
 economics, bulletins, courses of study, recipe books, etc. 
 
 This work in household affairs should accompany and par- 
 allel the tool work for boys; two separate teachers are desirable 
 for the two subjects although the same teacher may do the 
 work quite satisfactorily by alternating each day’s work. The 
 last period of the afternoon is perhaps the best time of day 
 for work in each of the two named subjects; while the boys 
 are working with tools the girls might be doing their work 
 in cooking, sewing or other household matters. 
 
 The value of this subject for girls and the permanency of 
 it in the elementary school course depends largely upon the 
 extent to which it is carried into the homes of the community 
 and practically applied; in fact, in selecting divisions or topics 
 for study, the teacher should be guided, to a large extent, by 
 the probability and ease with which such may be taken into 
 the homos. If this were a scientific course, such adherence to 
 the purely practical would not be possible nor advisable, but 
 in this elementary short course, where time is an important ele- 
 ment, and which it is hoped will lead girls to desire the longer, 
 more technical course of the high schools, as well as cause their 
 parents to feel sympathetic towards it, the value of everything 
 taught should be measured to a considerable extent by its direct 
 influence in the homes. 
 
 It seems that the first year of the inauguration of this new 
 course it would be desirable to have parents, mothers in par- 
 ticular, come to the school often and get in touch with the 
 work. Teachers might plan special occasions often for them; 
 a plain luncheon after the girls become somewhat proficient 
 in such cooking; the demonstration of some labor or drudgery 
 saving household appliance, or some other special feature might 
 serve as an opportunity to get mothers into the school. This 
 might ward off much possible criticism from well-meaning per- 
 
35 
 
 sons who think the school is a place for nothing but books. 
 
 Good work can be done with little equipment. In fact, the 
 absence of all equipment need not deter any resourceful, qual- 
 ified teacher from undertaking some work along this line. The 
 instructions or directions can be given at school for many mat- 
 ters connected with the management of a household, and their 
 application made at each girl’s home, a report being made to 
 the teacher the succeeding day as to the results. There are 
 some features, however, which require such minute and close 
 suprvision to insure success, that, in the absence of equipment, 
 should be omitted entirely from the course. It might be said 
 that a small equipment, costing from ten to thirty dollars, will 
 provide the means for demonstrating nearly all of the princi- 
 ples included in the course. The essentials for this work will 
 differ slightly, perhaps, in various communities as the topics 
 taught will differ, and as the peculiar needs of the community 
 seem to demand. The following might be said to be essential: 
 
 No. 8 wood stove, ordinary kitchen utensils and a few din- 
 ing room dishes, Babcock milk tester, and home-made fireless 
 cooker. Tables for use may be improvised; for fuel, the wood 
 for heating purposes may be cut to size. 
 
 In addition to the equipment just mentioned, the following 
 would be very desirable : two-burner blue flame or alcohol stove, 
 with glass door oven, model pantry for storing away dishes and 
 supplies, sink, kitchen table, dining table, set of dining dishes, 
 milk pans, churn, sad irons, brooms, mop, ironing board, utensils 
 for laundering, including patent wringer and washing machine 
 if possible; scissors, needles, thread, patterns, darning gourd, 
 small quantities of supplies for cooking and sewing, etc. This 
 list is merely suggestive; the teacher in charge should add to 
 or change this in any way that seems to the advantage of 
 the work in her school, or that the limited funds at the disposal 
 of the school may demand. In many cases, where equipment 
 might be needed but a short time, some home of the community 
 might supply it; as was stated at first, an abundant equipment 
 is not a necessary condition to good work and any teacher who 
 is determined to make a success of it, can do great things with 
 little or none. In selecting whatever is to belong to the school, 
 the peculiar adaptation to the conditions existing in the com- 
 munity should largely determine its kind and nature. ~ 
 
36 
 
 The food supplies necessary for the small amount of cook- 
 ing to be done c£n no doubt be had from citizens of the com- 
 munity without charge, especially since the product will belong 
 to pupils after being cooked. It might become necessary at 
 time^ to purchase small quantities of food, not common to the 
 community, but, as may have been inferred from previous state- 
 ments, the work of this kind is concerned almost entirely with 
 foods common among the people of the locality. The materials 
 for sewing might consist of scraps of cloth left over from arti- 
 cles of clothing of the girls constituting the class, new articles 
 of apparel, or occasionally it may be necessary to purchase small 
 quantities of materials; the needles, etc., for this work can 
 likely be had from homes of pupils as easily as the cooking sup- 
 plies. 
 
 STXTH GRADE! 
 
 Cooking . — Proper preparations for cooking a meal: suffi- 
 cient supply of fuel convenient ; collection of utensils to be 
 used ; all materials prepared before fire is kindled ; entire 
 meal planned before beginning any of it; time for setting the 
 dining table; clean up as they go; how to utilize time in the 
 kitchen economically ; how to save fuel ; how to make good 
 fire; how to care for stove and get right heat in oven; how to 
 estimate quantities for given number of persons; what to do 
 with left-over food; other general directions covering the plan- 
 ning and preparation of a meal. Teach how to cook eggs in 
 several appetizing ways ; how to test for freshness ; how to keep 
 them fresh. Teach methods of preparing and cooking in a 
 variety of ways the simplest farm products : potatoes, rice, 
 grits, sweet potatoes, garden vegetables, fruits of the locality; 
 biscuits, pan cakes, corn bread, bacon, poultry, etc. Methods 
 of ai ranging dining table and serving; simplest and most com- 
 monly practiced forms of correct table usage. Instruction in 
 the serving of such products as may be eaten uncooked. Each 
 lesson should be repeated, if necessary, until the practice is 
 assured. Frequent reviews in the way of rival divisions of the 
 class cooking and serving for each other, or of serving for par 
 ents and visitors. Give special attention to the preparation of 
 cold lunches, what they should consist of, what should be 
 omitted, etc. It will be found valuable to have cold lunches 
 prepared quite often at the school for pupils themselves; in 
 
37 
 
 some cases, it might be the regular practice ; this plan is heartily 
 commended. 
 
 Reiving . — The art here can be best and most thoroughly 
 learned by teaching it in connection with the making of articles 
 of clothing for use in the home; it would seem unwise to teach 
 any of the technique as an end within itself; it should come 
 incidental and as a necessary preparation to the construction 
 of something the pupil wants to complete. It may be nothing 
 more Ilian a handkerchief or napkin, but the point is that 
 stitching, hemming, patching, etc., should be incidental to the 
 accomplishment of something of immediate value to the pupil. 
 We might mention, in addition to the two named' above, towels, 
 pillow slips, aprons, plain underclothing, doilies, quilt squares etc. 
 In connection with such articles, they might learn overhand, 
 running, back stitch, blanket stitch, short and long basting 
 stitches ; hemming, gathering, stroking gathers, sewing on bands, 
 overcasting; sewing on buttons, hooks and eyes. Much practice 
 should be given in the various new principles, until pupils are 
 skillful in their use. Bringing work from home should be en- 
 couraged, if it is of such a nature as pupils can perform. Keep 
 ever in mind the utility of the article under construction and 
 its probable contribution to the welfare of the child or home. 
 
 Other material: how to clean rooms, make beds, arrange 
 furniture, hang pictures, clean windows, launder simple pieces 
 of clothing, use of washing machine and patent wringer, (rob 
 washing of its drudgery) ; importance of cleanliness in handling 
 of milk, how to accomplish it, importance of thorough milking, 
 utensils to be used, use and value of aerator, Pasteurizing, 
 sterilizing, advantage of shallow and deep setting of pans, 
 how to make cream rise, use of milk tester and value of it, how to 
 ripen cream, how to churn, take up and work butter, its preser- 
 vation, etc. Such other simple practices relating to the ordinary 
 activities which farmer girls have to do as may appeal to the 
 teacher as valuable. Care should be taken to leave over to 
 next grade such topics or phases as may be better understood or 
 more highly appreciated. Enough material is indicated -here 
 to provide abundant work for the session for this grade. It will 
 be found necessary to illustrate many of the principles herein 
 suggested at the pupils’ homes where teacher and pupils might 
 go in a body ; volunteers may be called for and caution observed 
 
38 
 
 to leave no impression that the home is not well kept. It will 
 often be found, too, that it will take a week to get a fairly good 
 practice of a one day’s instruction. 
 
 SEVENTH GRADE. 
 
 Cooking . — Nutritive value of eggs, their digestibility; how 
 to cook the fresh, dried and cured meats usually eaten, game 
 of the community, fish; continue practice in making biscuit, 
 pan cakes and corn bread ; v teach how to cook light bread, waf- 
 fles, light rolls, simple and inexpensive cakes, etc. Give con- 
 siderable attention to making menus for the three daily meals, 
 giving some idea of how to preserve a balanced ration, what 
 is better in hard work season, in leisure season, in spring, sum- 
 mer, autumn and winter, as well as at morning, noon and 
 night. Give practice in making cuts of meat, and selecting 
 young fowls, good food stuffs that must be purchased. Con- 
 tinue teaching of how to prevent waste of time, fuel and food; 
 cooking just sufficient quantities for a given number of persons ; 
 the relative values of stewing, baking, boiling, frying, etc. The 
 pupils should add to their lists of recipes and instructions on 
 this subject, such things as they may have learned and tested. 
 No recipe should find a place in their books that has not been 
 given a thorough test and proven good. 
 
 Sewing . — Continue the practice on simple articles of dress 
 and household sewing ; teach French hemming, and feather 
 stitching, single and double; much attention to mending, patch- 
 ing, darning, piecing, and cutting from simple pattern; show 
 how to match figures in patching, the circular, oblong, triangular, 
 half moon, etc., patching; teach all other simple technicalities 
 necessary to the doing of whatever ordinary sewing may be es- 
 sential in the home. The garments to be made might include, 
 in addition to a continuation of the kind mentioned for sixth 
 grade, skirts, sleeves, collars, linings, waists, plain dresses, etc. 
 Dresses for any and all of the public occasions for the school 
 should be made by the pupils of this class, in so far as such 
 work is beyond the ability of the class needing them. All 
 kinds of simple home work should be done. Girls can learn 
 something relative to value of dress goods, styles, adaptation to 
 complexions and figures, harmony of design and color, economy ' 
 in buying, cutting, making, etc. Continue to work in all 
 legitimate ways for that sympathetic attitude on the part of 
 
39 
 
 parents that is necessary for the permanent success of this sub- 
 ject in the elementary schools. 
 
 Other Work . — The constituent elements and food value of 
 milk, the use of cream separator, ways of using milk in cook- 
 ing; taste in selection of furniture, kinds of pictures suitable 
 for different rooms, cleaning furniture and clothing; more dif- 
 ficult laundering; the use of more labor saving appliances; 
 other principles and practices pertaining to general house- 
 keeping. The teacher should study the home needs of the 
 community on her visits and attempt to substitute new meth- 
 ods for wasteful, unattractive, or unsanitary ones. 
 
 References . — Courses of study and texts in Domestic Science ; 
 bulletins of United States Department of Agriculture relating 
 to the home and home economics (there are many of them) ; 
 pamphlets from State Departments of Education in Nebraska. 
 Maine, North Carolina, Iowa, Virginia. 
 
 COURSE IN COMMUNITY STUDY". 
 
 The compiler of this course of study assumes that next to 
 the “ three r’s,” the tools with which one must unlock what- 
 ever storehouses of knowledge may be within his reach, this 
 study of the home community is most important. If it be true 
 that the educated man is not a person full of mere informa- 
 tion, but one with ability to analyze whatever conditions may 
 confront him in actual life, know the relation and force of the 
 various factors going to make up this condition, their relation 
 to each other and his relation to them, knows what he must 
 do in order to make this condition contribute to his and his 
 community ’s welfare, and is able to do that thing, if this be 
 true, then education is gained most largely by a thoughtful study 
 of the life that lies around one, in which he moves and has 
 his being. As he gains knowledge and experience there, un- 
 derstands better and better the relations existing therein among 
 all the many various factors making up the life of the com- 
 •munity, he becomes better educated. This is what has happened 
 in the case of the self-made man, except that he has gained his 
 experiences and knowledge in a less sequential manner than 
 is possible in a school course. From the time when he first 
 
 
40 
 
 became a co-worker of the community, his mind has been 
 occupied with little else than solving the everyday problems 
 of acutal life. Human development, up to the time of formal 
 school instruction, has been accomplished in the same manner. 
 Whenever man’s mind is concerned with immediate and vital 
 problems, it acts with concentrated attention and results in 
 education. 
 
 Teachers will observe that this study contains much of 
 history, geography, drawing, composition work, arithmetic, etc., 
 as well as affords opportunity to introduce literature about the 
 things studied. We believe that enough of several of these 
 subjects for practical use, in the lower grades, can be gained 
 in this incidental manner. The fact that they are incidental 
 need not be reason for their being passed slightly by, how- 
 ever. Have pupils read all passages of literature very closely 
 related to the things studied. 
 
 It is suggested that teachers read the entire course and 
 study it carefully before attempting to teach it; many of the 
 suggestions contained herein have a bearing on other grades 
 than the one in which they are found; a teacher’s judgment 
 is the best guide as to how far she may follow this course of 
 study; certainly, not slavishly as to detail, and yet closely, as 
 to the general principles. Local conditions, the nature of her 
 community, the attitude of the people, her facilities for such 
 work, time available, etc., will determine to some extent the 
 selection of topics and the method of treatment. It must 
 always be treated in a live way and must relate vitally to the 
 welfare of the community to find a place of value in the 
 school work. 
 
 * 
 
 It is assumed here that the school is located in either a 
 farming or lumbering community ; where such is not the case, 
 a teacher must "first understand the guiding principles and 
 purpose of this work, and then make such individual applica- 
 tion of these principles as the industries and activities of the 
 community may call for. 
 
 Since the pupil’s ability to do the work of the several 
 grades as outlined is not so much dependent upon his literary 
 education as upon his age and maturity, it is suggested that 
 larger pupils of lower grades be allowed to enter this study. 
 
 It is also suggested that the information gathered and 
 
41 
 
 such conclusions as may seem important to the community, be 
 made the public property of the community. It will be educa- 
 tive to many of the adults to know many of the things herein 
 called for. 
 
 FIFTH GRADE. 
 
 For Home Study and Study Period Work . — Lists to be 
 made of native trees, shrubs, vines, flowers, grasses, weeds, etc. ; 
 lists to be made of birds, insects, wild animals, fish, reptiles, 
 etc., including all native forms of animal life. These lists 
 should be prepared on specially arranged sheets of paper, hav- 
 ing columns to show the chief characteristics of each animal or 
 plant; they should be made in such form and and with such 
 care that they may be filed as permanent records in the school 
 of each pupil’s work along this line. A resourceful teacher 
 mil be able to invent proper forms for these records. The 
 value of this work lies in its being individual and accurate. 
 No pupil should be allowed to place on his list the name of 
 anything that he has not a definite and first hand knowledge 
 of as existing in his school community. He can not place the 
 cypress tree on his list, for instance, whether it belongs there 
 or not, Unless he knows from observation that it grows there. 
 Obviously, every list will be different, for no two pupils will 
 know exactly the same things, and in this fact lies one of the 
 chief values of such study: it will inspire every child to be- 
 come personally acquainted with the plants and animals of 
 his community; it will also likely develop that the otherwise 
 dull pupil will be found proficient in his knowledge of nature. 
 The common name for plants and animals is to be preferred. 
 
 These lists of individual pupils are to be kept in good 
 condition and filed with the teacher at the end of each session; 
 they are to be added to by the same pupils each session, as their 
 knowledge becomes more extensive, until the end of the course in 
 community study. At the close of each session, large charts, 
 showing the sum total of all the names listed by all pupils, will 
 be prepared in good form by pupils and teacher, jointly, for 
 posting on the walls of the school room, such list including 
 practically all of the names that should belong on them. Speci- 
 mens of plants gathered by the pupils should be placed in a 
 case. 
 
 Weather records should be made and preserved by pupils 
 
42 
 
 of this grade. Observations should be made at stated times 
 each day, morning and evening perhaps, giving condition of 
 the sky, direction and estimated speed of the wind, temperature, 
 humidity, rainfall determined by gauge, etc. These results 
 are to be tabulated in good form as has be<m suggested pre- 
 viously. 
 
 This grade should also gather historical data of the com- 
 munity from original sources; it should be written out in good 
 form to serve as a text in local history, each pupil's account 
 differing as his opportunities for gathering this material differed. 
 Such material should be obtained chiefly from the recollections 
 of older inhabitants, and should cover condition of the country 
 as to roads, timber supply, trading posts, means of transporta- 
 tion, . industries, methods of cultivation, tools and implements 
 of labor, population, churches, schools, lack of rural conven- 
 iences, etc., etc., all tending to show accurately and in great 
 detail the social, political, industrial, and economic conditions 
 of previous times. There should be little effort at this time 
 to make philosophic deductions from these bare facts, but they 
 should be complete and accurate enough to make such deduc- 
 tions possible at a later period of the child’s school course. Bio- 
 graphies of interesting and important persons should be ob- 
 tained; places of formei; interest or importance visited, maps 
 drawn showing earlier ^conditions, etc. Here, as in previous 
 work, each individual’s compilation will differ from his class- 
 mate’s as his opportunities for gathering it differed. Individual 
 and accurate work must be obtained if the results are to be 
 had which it is expected this work will produce. 
 
 Teachers must exercise care and foresight in planning for 
 all of this work day by day so that not too much will be de- 
 manded of pupils and so that it will have a continuity about 
 it. If it is haphazard and each pupil is not compelled to keep 
 up his proper portion, nothing worth while will result. 
 
 For Recitation Work . — As far as is profitable and possible, 
 the economic value of each plant and animal listed day by day 
 should be studied and discussed in recitation; some are an ad- 
 vantage, others a disadvantage to the economic welfare of the 
 community ; the geographical distribution should be noted ; their 
 habits and the conditions under which they thrive best learned, 
 
43 
 
 similarities or dissimilarities to other plants or animals observed 
 and commented on; means for either propogating or retard- 
 ing the propogation of such plants or animals as may be ob- 
 jectionable should be known; drawings made of all plants an.! 
 animals listed, etc., etc. Resourceful teachers will discriminate 
 in selecting such topics for discussion in recitation as promise 
 the greatest value; they will also find occasion to add to the 
 topics herein mentioned. It should never be lost sight of +hat 
 the object of this work is to extend the experiences of the child, 
 lead to intelligent observation, and result in knowledge of some 
 'economic value. The relation of the plants and animals listed 
 to the health and prosperity of the community should be prop- 
 erly stressed. Many times names of unimportant plants or 
 animals will be passed over wdth little comment, the judgment 
 of the teacher determining to what extent each shall be studied. 
 The maturity of the children and their natural interests will 
 also be a strong factor in determining what shall be studied 
 most; it should also be remembered that this work continues 
 through several grades and phases of the work too intricate or 
 abstract in this grade may be profitably postponed until later. 
 
 The recitation work on weather records should prove very 
 profitable. Besides the records previously called for, pupils 
 should have recorded time and amounts of hail, snows, frosts, 
 storms, etc. At the close of each season and session, summaries 
 of the weather conditions for the season and year should be 
 complied, showing the total rainfall, number of frosts, etc., to- 
 gether with comments as to whether they were seasonable or 
 otherwise. After such study has been in progress for some time, 
 weather forecasts for the succeeding day should be asked for, 
 and the reasons for such predictions clearly given. Special 
 attention should be given to the relation existing between 
 weather and crops; this is the chief value of the study. (What 
 crops will be helped or injured by a rain today? A frost to- 
 night? The high wind of yesterday did what damage? Were 
 weather conditions favorable for the turnip seed planted yes- 
 terday? etc.) 
 
 Recitation work on the data gathered on historical topics 
 will consist of a study of the factors that have been important 
 in developing the community to its present condition. Each 
 fact chronicled has either favored or retarded the progress of 
 
44 
 
 the community in either a social, political, industrial or economic 
 way or in several ways; each person of importance has con- 
 tributed his part in the same manner. In so far as the maturity 
 and interests of the children of this grade will justify, this 
 kind of study will receive attention. It is the only real value 
 that attaches to any history study, and it will later be found 
 that the same factors that have acted in the home community 
 have also, in a larger way, perhaps, been factors in the de- 
 velopment of the nation; community history, then, is but a 
 type of all history. As has been previously suggested, phases 
 too deep for these children should be passed over at this time; 
 their reasoning power and ability to make deductions with 
 safety and accuracy is not great. It will likely be discovered 
 that the contribution of people (biographies) will be of far 
 greater interest, and therefore of value, than have other factors. 
 
 The proportion of time allotted to the subdivisions of na- 
 ture study, (plants and animals), weather, and history will 
 be determined by the teacher and will depend upon their rela- 
 tive importance, the interests of the children, the amount of 
 time available, etc. It should all be “ Community Study” to 
 the children without their attention being drawn to the various 
 subdivisions of it. 
 
 SIXTH GRADE. 
 
 For Home Study and Study Period Work .— The lists of na- 
 tive plants and animals called for in the previous grade are 
 to be added to as pupils discover at first hand new specimens for 
 their individual lists. Of course, since these lists have been 
 practically completed already, there will be only occasional ad- 
 ditions. Interest in the matter should not lag, however. 
 
 Weather records as suggested for the previous grade are 
 to be continued; the form might include more extensive facts. 
 Weather maps, showing distribution of frosts, heaviest dews, etc., 
 might be made. 
 
 It will be found necessary to gather little historical data 
 during this session as the previous grade has likely covered 
 the ground pretty thoroughly; however, this grade should fill 
 in any omissions of the previous grade, following the suggestions 
 given heretofore. 
 
 This grade should begin the making of scale maps along 
 several lines, covering the social, political, industrial and econ- 
 
45 
 
 omic status of the community. The information for these maps 
 should he gathered out of school and will include data concern- 
 ing crops, industries, factories, railroads, roads, navigable 
 streams, transportation, live stock, churches, schools, political 
 divisions, etc., etc. The maps should be made during study 
 periods, as follows: (1) One showing physical configuration of 
 the school community, drainage, streams, swamps, waste land, 
 points of natural interest, etc. Colored crayons might be used 
 to best advantage here. (2) Another showing merchantable 
 timbers, with kind, quantity and proportion of each kind in- 
 dicated; other natural resources. (3) One showing timber, not 
 merchantable, cultivated land, open tillable land, pasture land, 
 etc. (4) Another showing the roads, railroads, school, churches, 
 stores, postoffice, saw mills, cotton gins, residences, navigable 
 streams, boat landings, other industries, etc. (5) One showing 
 areas and exact location of staple crops. (6) Another showing 
 live stock census. (7) One showing distribution of human pop- 
 ulation with exact census of them. Other maps along similar 
 lines will suggest themselves to teachers; they may find it ad- 
 visable to subdivide some of the features suggested above The 
 first aim in this work is the acquisition of accurate data; these 
 maps must be true in scale and accurate in every respect, ex- 
 cept where “approximate” is stated. Approximations should 
 be allowed in only such cases as it is found to be extremely dif- 
 ficult or impossible to get the facts. This work of making ac- 
 curate maps of the kind indicated will occupy the greater part 
 of the pupil’s time in this subject this year. Teachers should 
 not demand enough of pupils to tempt them to slight the work. 
 Accuracy and pains must mark every step of this phase of 
 community study as it is to form the foundation from which 
 will be deducted general principles which we hope will guide 
 these pupils in their adult life there. 
 
 For Recitation Work . — The economic value of plants and 
 animals will continue to be studied as has been previously sug- 
 gested ; phases of this work, too abstruse for the previous grade, 
 will receive attention now. The same discrimination on the 
 part of the teacher in selecting from the many phases that may 
 suggest themselves, those of greatest value, must continue to 
 be exercised. This subdivision will require but a small portion 
 of the time of the grade. 
 
46 
 
 Deductions from the weather records, as have been pre- 
 viously suggested, should be more acurate and far reaching. 
 There is little danger of covering the same ground twice in 
 this work, since the old farmer, in his many years of observa- 
 tions, has never yet learned to understand the weather. Every 
 weather change should be studied in its effects on crops and 
 vegetation. After any radical change in the weather, such 
 a study will be more interesting and valuable. Pupils of this 
 age can study cause and effect as well as adults, where the con- 
 crete examples lie before them. 
 
 Such features of local history study as have been post- 
 poned until now may be taken up and completed. Pupils should 
 understand fully the factors, with their relative value, that 
 have contributed to the development of their community, as 
 well as those factors that have retarded, or now retard, its 
 progress. The purpose of this study is to make better citizens 
 of these pupils, young men who can and will contribute their 
 parts in a greater and more intelligent way. Not much time 
 will be required to do this division of the work. 
 
 The most important portion of community study this ses- 
 sion will be in connection with the scale maps heretofore men- 
 tioned. Every map, every fact or feature indicated in the map, 
 will be found rich in suggestiveness for a study of social, politi- 
 cal, industrial or economic conditions. How has the physical 
 configuration added to or interfered with the development of 
 this community in any respect? Have the natural resources 
 had much to do with its present condition? Questions like 
 these suggest a splendid field for valuable study. They naturally 
 arise at every step in the work, so it is unnecessary to indicate 
 further as to the procedure. The maturity of pupils, relative 
 importance of thing studied, and their probable future im- 
 portance will determine, largely, the amount of time to be giv^i* 
 to the various items. If the locality might more profitably sup- 
 port industries, factories, etc., whose value and importance are 
 not yet realized, these relatively unimportant features will be 
 stressed ; if it might better shift from an agricultural to a stock 
 raising or dairying business, whatever small beginnings hav*. 
 already been made along these lines will be stressed; if certain 
 industries are carried on unprofitably or to the general detriment 
 of the community, such fact would warrant their receiving more 
 
47 
 
 attention than their face value seemed to call for. These are 
 mere suggestions as to the fertility of the field opened up by 
 this study. The condition of the roads and the importance in 
 that particular community of better roads; how the railroads 
 have affected the community; whether boat service, if there be 
 a navigable stream, would contribute in any way to the wel- 
 fare of the community ; profits from well bred live stock or from 
 high bred crop seed might be compared to those from the 
 “scrub” kind, etc., etc. Keeping in mind the maturity and 
 ability of pupils, the teacher can develop in their minds many 
 guiding principles, relative to factors of growth and develop- 
 ment, that will be of great service to them as citizens and 
 farmers, etc. 
 
 SEVENTH GRADE. 
 
 For Home Study and Study Period Work . — Continue lists 
 of plants and animals as suggested heretofore; these lists will 
 require little time as they have been practically completed 
 already. By the end of this session, pupils should have on 
 their lists the names of all native plants and animals of the 
 community. 
 
 Weather records and predictions should be continued as 
 previously suggested; pupils should be able to be fairly ac- 
 curate in predictions of seasonable weather and will take pride 
 in that fact. 
 
 Scale maps as suggested for the previous grade should be 
 continued and any omissions of that grade should now be made 
 up. In addition, they might make maps showing by townships, 
 and ranges, the proper location and area of every man’s prop- 
 erty; tables showing the amounts of imports and exports of 
 the community; tables showing all the facts connected with 
 factories of the community : name, purpose, when established, 
 history, why so located, value of plant, number of employes, 
 source of raw material, process of manufacture, capacity, uses 
 of finished product, transportation facilities, etc., etc. Personal 
 observations should be made of fine types of live stock, extra good 
 crops, stretches of good road, improved implements, transporta- 
 tion facilities and methods, forest removal, etc. The two previous 
 grades will have gathered material enough, practically, upon 
 which to base the recitation work and study of this grade; its 
 
48 
 
 time will be more largely occupied in making comparisons, de- 
 ductions, etc. 
 
 For the Recitation . — A study of the economic value to the 
 farmer of such plants, birds, etc., already listed but which 
 have not yet been studied completely enough. The relation ex- 
 isting between and among plants, animals and man might receive 
 attention in so far as it seems to be of practical value. 
 
 In the study of data furnished by scale maps, those fea- 
 tures should be stressed which have been postponed for a more 
 mature understanding. Pupils should know by study in the 
 community what characteristics ought to determine the loca- 
 tion of a farm home, its barns, etc.; they should draw valuable 
 inferences by comparing the exports and imports of their com- 
 munity in staples, particularly those which might be raised 
 at home; factory study should prove very valuable in determ- 
 ining whether such enterprises, as are to be found really con- 
 tribute such to the general wealth of the community. (It will 
 be found at times that some of them really draw natural wealth 
 from the community, leaving it poorer and poorer, and sub- 
 stituting no wealth for that taken) ; in connection with this 
 study of factories, pupils should gain valuable knowledge of 
 commerce, as it relates to them, of transportation in general, 
 of business organization, of the dependence of other people 
 upon their community for their products, etc. A study of the 
 present and probable future results of forest removal upon the 
 climate, industries and prosperity of the locality should cer- 
 tainly prove worth while; it should also suggest substitutions 
 in many cases for present occupations of the people. A study 
 of good types of live stock, roads, implements, crops, etc., 
 would include a comparison of their value in annual income 
 to their owners with that of the “scrub” or ordinary variety. 
 If the right kind of study is made of these phases of commun- 
 ity activities, pupils should begin to have very definite ideas of 
 the place their home locality occupies in the larger parish, state, 
 or country; they will see how they are dependent and always 
 will be, perhaps, upon other sections for certain things; they 
 will also see that through ignorance or carelessness, many in- 
 dustries that would prosper and add to community wealth, have 
 never been established; a more accurate valuation will likely 
 be placed on well bred stock, improved seed, good roads, labor 
 
49 
 
 saving machinery, knowledge of scientific farming, the local 
 school, postoffice and store, railroads, new industries, etc. Their 
 attitude, as citizens, towards providing funds for roads, schools, 
 community improvements of all kinds, will probably be assured ; 
 they will begin to know that individual and community prosper- 
 ity rise and fall together, and that they are vital factors in this 
 community. Such should be the purpose of this work on the part 
 of the teacher in this grade. 
 
 A study of rural telephone lines, rural mail delivery, etc., 
 should be made where such exist. 
 
 The study work of this grade should extend outside into 
 nearby communities and to far off communities or countries, 
 depending entirely upon the degree of relation existing be- 
 tween such places and the home community in either a social, 
 political, economic or industrial way. Pupils by this time 
 will have developed enough to discover such relationships with- 
 out difficulty, having a tolerably accurate estimation of their 
 own community’s place and importance. 
 
 Stronger reason than this, however, is the fact that they 
 are of an age when their interests begin to be limited less and 
 less by time and space; they are adult as to their attitude 
 towards life, people, and affairs, although without the exper- 
 ience of adults. Teachers will discover that the tendency of 
 pupils of this age will constantly be to broaden out and “find 
 themselves” out in the world. It is at this age that the boy 
 runs away from home to learn something of the world, not bare 
 facts so much as to learn to how he fits into the general scheme 
 of things. This craving for new experiences and the effort to 
 adjust himself will to a large extent manifest itself in an 
 interest in things outside of the “here” and “now”; it will, 
 10 some extent, at least, be satisfied by discovering little by 
 little how he and his community are necessary parts of ‘ ‘ one 
 harmonious whole” and that the welfare of many people, at 
 home and elsewhere, depend to some extent upon his contribu- 
 tion to the life of his community along the many lines of ac- 
 tivities, social, economic, industrial and political. Whenever 
 such tendencies show themselves in pupils, the teacher must 
 respond to them and go out into the “everywhere” through 
 the relation existing between any such places and the local com- 
 munity. This is the culminating step in education, “rising by 
 
50 
 
 things that are under our feet. ” Pupils can never truly learn 
 anything of other places through books, except as their knowl- 
 edge of home conditions serves as an interpreter for them. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR COMMUNITY STUDY. 
 
 Bulletins and publications of State and United States De- 
 partments of Agriculture (most valuable). 
 
 Texts on native plants and animals of the state. 
 Publications and maps of railroad and steamship lines con- 
 necting in any way with the community. 
 
 Large atlas, text on industrial and political geography. 
 Good texts on botany, zoology, geology and agriculture. 
 About the Weather — Harrington. 
 
 Domesticated Animals — Shaler. 
 
 Geological Story Briefly Told — Dana. 
 
 Home Studies in Insects — Treat. 
 
 How to Know Wild Flowers — Dana. 
 
 Our Insect Friends and Foes — Cragin. 
 
 Relations of Birds to Man — Weed. 
 
 Nature Study and Life — Hodge. 
 
 LITERATURE RELATING TO COMMUNITY STUDY. 
 
 Bryant — To the Fringed Gentian, The Voice of the Grass, 
 The Death of the Flowers, The Use of Flowers, To a Waterfowl, 
 The Valley Brook, Planting of the Apple Tree, Robert of Lincoln. 
 
 Wordsworth — Nutting, The Thorn, To a Daisy, To a Sky- 
 lark, The Sparrow’s Nest, A Wren’s Nest, Daffodils. 
 
 Whittier — The Corn Song, The Pumpkin. 
 
 E astman — Goldenrod. 
 
 Holmes — A Song of Clover. 
 
 Poe — (Essay on Man) Nature’s Chain. 
 
 Johnson — A September Violet. 
 
 Wilcox — God' Everywhere in Nature. 
 
 Aldrich — Maple Leaves. 
 
 Steadman — Going a Nutting, The Flight of Birds. 
 
 Lanier — From Corn. 
 
 Thompson — Domestic Birds. 
 
51 
 
 Thaxter — The Sandpiper. 
 
 Proctor — The Owl. 
 
 Croaker — The Chickadee. 
 
 Taylor — A Night With a Wolf. 
 Browning — Pied Piper of Hamlin. 
 Bennett — To a Cricket. 
 
 Barton — Bruce and the Spider. 
 Shelley — Daybreak, The Cloud. 
 Keats — Morning. 
 
 Southey— Night, The Holly Tree. 
 Longfellow — Bain in Summer. 
 Tennyson — The Brook. 
 
 Poster — The Silence of the Hills. 
 Burns — To a Mountain Daisy. 
 Lowell — To the Dandelion. 
 
 Herrick — To Daffodils. 
 
 Dickison — The Grass. 
 
 Tabb — The Tax Gatherer (bee). 
 Emerson — The Humble Bee. 
 
 Saxe — Solomon and the Bees. 
 
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