This briefly is the plan of the Bancroft school. From this crude beginning the work in these three lines has been systematized, and teachers, pupils, and patrons have become more confident in the possibility of getting good results without the use of expensive equipment and means other than their own resources; homes have been reached; the school children appreciate the opportunities they have; the patrons recognize the value of the work and feel. that between the school and the home there is a relation which if properly sustained will make better homes, better schools, and better citizens. The Crete plan.-Crete is a prosperous little town of 3,000 inhabitants in a fertile agricultural section of Nebraska. Superintendent G. A. Gregory has faith in industrial training as a healthful auxiliary to the regular schoolwork. One corner of a basementroom was cleared out, some common wood-working tools secured. and the Crete school boys were given a chance to learn to do things. They were encouraged to establish workshops at home, make use of the old saw, chisel, plane, and hammer, and provide necessary articles for use or ornament about the home. The boys liked it. The patrons began to like it. But there were the high-school girls crowding their heads with schoolbook lore, and neglecting training of the hand, the eye, and the sense of weight, size, and condition. There was no unused room that could be cleared and fitted for a cooking-class. There were no funds for providing equipment or teacher. But something must be done. Mrs. Gregory is a good cook. She became interested. Another lady who belongs to a prominent family of the town and who is likewise a good cook, became interested. A few other ladies from the best families in Crete joined the little circle and Superintendent Gregory's plan was put on an operating basis. Each lady volunteered her services and her kitchen once a week. Not to exceed ten girls gathered at each of these homes under charge of the volunteer, free service, home teacher and demonstrator and took a lesson in cooking. At one place it was bread; at another, soups; at another, gravies; at another cookies, etc. The school girls watched operations, asked questions, made notes, went home, and during the following week tried their hands at making the specified article, and when successful, reported and showed results to the home teacher who now became the judge as to whether the proper degree of proficiency had been acquired. The girls who attended the bread-making demonstration one week were invited to pass on to another division the following week until the complete rounds were made once, and oftener if necessary. This was a volunteer course not only on the part of the teachers but on the part of the pupils. The second and third years found all high-school girls enlisted in the work. The cooking-course has now been added to the high-school curriculum. The following conditions prevail: 1. Any high-school girl may take the work any year or years from freshman to senior inclusive. 2. The work when completed is counted as a regular high-school credit. 3. The teacher of each special division and one other member of the teachers' club are judges who decide when satisfactory results have been attained in each respective division. 4. No fixed time is set for the completion of the work by any student. Ability to show satisfactory results in each division of the work is the measure of work completed. In the making of bread the pupil is required to bring to the judges samples of her work in each of the different kinds of bread required to be made. In the division of pies the pupil is required to submit samples of one- and two-crust pies. In the cooking of meats the pupil is required to bring to the judge samples of meat cooked as required and also to show evidence of her ability to select meats and to properly serve them. This applies in other divisions of the work. On the completion of the twenty different divisions of work outlined in the course, the pupil is given high-school credit for the same.. In agriculture the work is likewise homework. Each pupil from the first grade up is encouraged to become acquainted with the growth of plant and animal life. Each pupil is encouraged to learn to do something worth being done, to learn to do the thing which his surroundings permit, and learn to do well whatever he undertakes. Three years ago last spring before the closing of the school year superintendent Gregory and his teachers left with pupils of the school the feeling that during the summer vacation it would be well for each one to learn to do with his own hands something worth being done. In the fall after the opening of school, on inquiry by the teachers, it was learned that nearly all the pupils had accomplished something. Some had raised flowers, some vegetables; some of those living in the country had cultivated quite extensive plots of ground; some had raised and cared for different kinds of animals as pets; some had learned to sew, to cook, to can fruit, to make articles for use about the home and to make models of various kinds, such as bridges, houses, ladders, wheelbarrows, and other articles which appeal to a boy. In order that the pupils might each see what the other had accomplished and that teachers and patrons might see what had been done, one Friday afternoon was set apart for an industrial exhibition. School was dismissed in all the grades. The lower rooms in the central school building were prepared for exhibiting by placing boards across lengthwise on the rows of seats and the walls were utilized for hanging exhibits of sewing. The children were asked to bring any article they had made or any pet they had raised during the summer. No prizes were offered. Entry cards were provided. Each article bore the name of the maker. One room was set aside for vegetables, one for flowers, one for sewing and manual training, one for cooking. The pets were brought in boxes of various sizes with wire or wire screen fronts and were arranged on benches strung around the outside of the school building. One spotted calf raised by a girl and a two-thirds grown lamb raised by a boy, were tied to the school-yard fence. The pets included chickens, ducks, geese, guineas, pigeons, rabbits, white rats, kittens, puppies, canary birds, pet pigs, and one twelve-year-old girl exhibited her baby sister as the pet which had occupied her time all summer. The cooking included several kinds of bread, cake, pies, cookies, candies, canned fruits, and other household articles; sewing included aprons, sofa-pillow covers, dusting caps, various articles of ordinary wear and house ornaments. The manual-training work included coat hangers, sleeve boards, broom-holders, match boxes, knife-holders, pen-holders, boxes of various descriptions, chairs, jardiniere stands, stools, wheelbarrows, ladders, and models of various kinds. One boy exhibited a home-made engine with a coal car and coach attached. Among the vegetable exhibits were every common vegetable and several exhibits of peanuts. The flower department contained exhibits of potted plants and bouquets grown in the homes and gardens of the pupils. No awards were made, each pupil getting his reward in the satisfaction of knowing that he had accomplished something, that what he had done was worthy of the interest of others and that he had gained the ability to do something worth doing. This industrial exhibition was repeated the next two years, continuing to grow in interest. The last year the exhibit was made in the high-school building where electric lights were available and the exhibit was open during the afternoon and evening thus giving business men a chance to view the exhibit. At nine o'clock in the evening a brief program of music and addresses was held in the high-school auditorium. The people of Crete are now asking why they cannot have an up-to-date manual-training and home-economic department in their public schools. The way is easy now. The Bradshaw plan.-In the village of Bradshaw, where a ten-grade, four-room school is maintained, the high-school and grammar-school girls organized a domestic-science club under the direction of one of the teachers. They met once a week outside of school hours. Their first work was sewing. They got an instruction book and studied out what they wished to try first; all worked at the same thing and brought results to the next meeting. They made articles of clothing for themselves and for members of their family. They made raffia hats which they themselves delighted to wear during the summer. The boys of the high-school and grammar-school grades organized an agricultural club, had regular meetings at stated times, on which occasions some members read papers or gave demonstrations concerning the subjects in which they had become interested. Sometimes the work included study of one of the different breeds of sheep, cattle, horses, hogs, or poultry; at other times, corn, potatoes, alfalfa, sugar beets, peanuts, or some other article in the grain or vegetable line received attention. The primary grades had a school and home improvement club, under the direction of the two primary-grade teachers. This club in the spring time secured the use of some vacant lots on which they raised flowers and vegetables. Nearly all members of each of the three above-mentioned clubs had home gardens in which they cultivated flowers and vegetables. The Pawnee plan.—District No. 20, the Lower West Branch School, is a rural school in Pawnee County eight miles southwest of Pawnee City. From twenty to twenty-five pupils are enrolled and a class of from one to four pupils graduate from the eighth grade each year. The school building is the ordinary box-car form but kept in good repair. The school children collected stones and made borders for flower beds in front and at one side of the building. They also trained vines over the outbuildings and maintained a small experimental garden. At intermission periods the teachers and pupils talked over plans by which they might learn to cook and to sew, to make various articles, and to cultivate certain plants. Recipes were sought and distributed, each girl experimenting in her own home. Results were reported at their little informal meetings, and when desired, samples were submitted. In this way the girls learned to make bread and other common articles of diet to can fruit, to sew, and to cultivate flowers and vegetables. The boys took especial interest in corn- and potato-growing and other agricultural lines that especially appealed to the individual. At the county corn contests and at the state contests this school is always represented by creditable exhibits in the various lines of work and by delegates sent by the school to attend the meeting. The teacher, Miss Lulu Wolford, was re-employed each year at an advanced salary. Her school ranks among the very best in the county and in the state in the quality of work done in the regular branches. The community has been much benefited in the interest taken by the young people in the work of the home. The school had been much benefited by the interest awakened among the patrons of the school. The examples just cited give the work done in these particular city, town, village, and country schools. These results have been repeated in other schools and in other states. I am led to believe that the results gained are in some instances better than results in this same work where funds, equipment, and trained teachers are provided for carrying on the work as an organized part of the school course. The work has this virtue: A child learns to make the best use of his opportunity; he learns that efficiency is the aim and that individual effort wins. In all the above-mentioned instances the work has been encouraged by the existence of the school district, the county, and the state organizations of boys and girls, which have for their purpose the development of individual efficiency; the object being to provide suggestion and direction rather than instruction. Departments of manual training and cooking have recently been established in the high schools at York and Geneva as a direct result of the interest taken in the work of the county and state boys' and girls' associations. In other localities, both rural and urban, thru the activity of the young people, the communities have been led to a higher appreciation of the value of education in agriculture, home economics, and manual training as encouraged by our 8,000 active members scattered over the state. Agricultural and domestic science clubs thruout the United States are doing this same work of spreading the inspiration that comes from individual effort along lines of activity that bring the school, the home, and the community into closer communion and recognize the necessity of all-around development. Referring again to the thought suggested at the beginning of this paper in the discussion on the consolidation of schools, let us make application to the subject under discussion. Insomuch as we should make the best possible use of the one-room rural school in our work of evolution toward the consolidated school, so is it necessary to make use of the facilities at hand if within the present generation we see the establishment of the work in agriculture, manual training, and domestic science in our schools where most needed. The extension work in agriculture and home economics which is being rapidly developed now by many of our leading universities; the organizations of boys and girls working thru the public-school system; the reading courses made popular because of their adaptation to the real conditions as found in the homes of the people; the traveling schools of agriculture, which may later bring traveling schools of home economics; all these movements which stimulate the activity of our young people in a simple, earnest, effective way are doing more for creating a proper degree of respect for industrial efficiency; are helping more to dignify the calling of the farmer and the home-maker than are textbooks, lectures, special schools, and other of the more dignified methods we have been using, yet in which we feel the need of a more effective means of reaching the home and of extending the work. Necrology From May, 1907, to January 1, 1908 Reports of the death of the following-named life and active members have been received since May, 1907; the date of decease follows each name. OLIVER CROMWELL AREY (December, 1907). GEORGE S. BEANE (October, 1907) SARAH F. BUCKELEW (April 27, 1907). EZEKIEL HANSON COOK (November 8, 1907) J. B. CUNNINGHAM (November 11, 1907) Brooklyn, N. Y. Des Moines, Iowa Los Angeles, Cal. Brooklyn, N. Y. Cincinnati, Ohio Philadelphia, Pa. Birmingham, Ala. Chicago, Ill. S. L. FROGGE (August 2, I9o7) ENOCH A. GASTMAN (August 3, 1907) RUFUS HENRY HALSEY (July 25, 1907) G. R. HAMMAN (April 24, 1907). CHARLES HERBERT HARRINGTON (July 21, 1907) JOHN S. LOCKE (December 5, 1907) C. E. MANN (June 30, 1907) FRED B. MAXWELL (November 6, 1907) Reisterstown, Md. Greenville, Ky. Decatur, Ill. Oshkosh, Wis. Fort Worth, Texas Saco, Me. Ann Arbor, Mich. New York, N. Y. |