The New Education

and the N

iving well on to Easter, there is a town of some three thousand inhabitants, called Lowville. The comfortable homes, brick stores, wide tree-bordered streets, smiling hills and giddy children loo

agricultural region, farmed by good farmers, who are intelligently a

ored occupations of the professional farmer. The boys and girls growing up in the town or the neighboring countryside, bl

bigotry, prejudice, unfairness and unsociableness of the population; the tendency to cling to the past no matter what its shortcomings; the unwillingness to venture into even the rosie

ville

. When Mr. W. F. H. Breeze took over the principalship he made no particular objection to the old class rooms and wooden stairs, but

up to all of the unscientific crudities which have been handed down in American agriculture since the early settlers took the land from the Indians in grateful recognition of their instructions in ferti

ould equip them with all of the culture of our schools, beside giving them a knowledge of the sciences of agriculture and of mechanics. Those boys and girls who were planning to go to college required an advance course in those purgatorial topics which, for some inexplicable reas

ers, the boys and girls of Lowville were looking to the schools-high as well as elementary-for an education

its streets, schools, trees, houses, and business interests; there was, too, an interest, expressed among the neighboring farmers, in the won

n for Lowville and the surrounding territory. Adults, as well as young folks, needed schoo

chool's O

ing in educational lines. People were anxious to have it done. They wanted the advantage of a modern ed

tic science, several phases of agriculture and mechanics. Then he correlated the various branches

e things which they had to do in life. The work must come down to earth. It had to be practical-that is, applicable to everyday affairs. Some pe

looks, but you can't put on frills until you have a garment to which they may be att

ok stoves, such as those used in the village, ordinary sewing machines, typewriters for t

ey will be compelled to use these tools. Why, then, should they be taught mechanics with

Work as

e ceiling; setting up the simple tools and putting the shop in running order. Meanwhile, the agricultural students set up two cream separators and a milk-tester, and arra

picking samples and testing them on return to the school. In fruit-packing season, the students visit the packing houses, or else, in the case of some of the boys, they take a week of employment with a goo

practical problems which arise in the daily work of the Lowville farmer. The physics teacher, enthusiastic over his students and his work, builds machines and testing devices, which the boys and girls use in solving the problems which they bring from their homes

f tempering, annealing, welding, soldering and removing rust, all leads up to the real work of the shops,-the making of products. The boys make pruning knives, squares and drawing boards, grafting hooks, nail boxes, apple-boxing devices (for this is an apple country), cement rollers, mallets, whiffle-trees, bob-sleds,

ch a course is necessarily limited in a high school, it forms an invaluable addition to the knowledge of the boy who cannot go to an agricultu

irls of Lowvi

Domesti

ls learning the principles of sanitation, and their application to the household; domestic art and home decoration; lighting, heating and ventilation. The sewi

tire meals. The girl who finishes the domestic science course in the Lowville Academy is competent to organize a home, cook, sew

ear directly upon the work of the remaining courses. The Academic co-ordination is particularly noticeable in the English work, which is required of everyone d

ollecting them in a folder and arranging them in order, according to subject. Chemi

cted by the high school program, and "saved" by a high school course. The appeal of the school is a wide one. There are no class of boys and girls in Lowville who cannot find

nstance

to high school. A farmer's son with little taste for the ordinary academic studies was inspired by the idea of improved, scientific farming and was getting a thorough insight into the principles of agriculture, chemistry, physics, and mechanics, which will be of the greatest service

ion with the Grange, the State, and several other agencies, Lowville has secured an agricultural specialist, whose business it is to travel through the countryside, advising farmers, discussing their problems and suggesting better methods of operating the farms, or of experimenting in new dire

t. With one eye on community needs and the other on the best means of supplying them, the L

TNO

his chapter appeared originall