2.

that in one school there is only one teacher, in five there
are two, in twelve only 3 and in nine there are four. We
are safe to conclude that here too the teacher who teaches
agriculture teaches other subjects in addition to this work.
The special teacher will be found chiefly in the
larger schools and in the special agricultural school. In
the former the agricultural will be very limited, as such
schools are usually found in cities where agriculture is
taught for cultural purposes, The number of special schools
is limited and the present tendency is against their extension
in number. In summary, we may say that agencies preparing
teachers of agriculture must bear the fact in mind that
the teachers of agriculture will in most cases teach have
to teach additional subjects.

Other duties required.

pal.

The non-teaching principal is not the typical princiCourts shows that only 18.7% of the principals in the accredited school of the North Central Association do no teaching while 21.7% teach four periods daily. (1) Since agriculture is taught chiefly by men, and since in many cases state aid makes it possible to pay a higher salary to the agricultural teacher, it is but natural that many principals are teaching agriculture. Where the high school cannot employ a special teacher of agriculture, the principal is often the best qualified to teach the new subject, sometimes with a view of getting the work started so that the board will employ a trained teacher later. The school directory shows that in the 53 schools which receive state aid for agriculture 31 principals are doing the teaching. Robison-Jenks have

1,

op. cit. p.58-9.

published the only general statistics on this point. of the 126 teachers who are styles specialist because they have studied agriculture at an agricultural college for at least one year 38 were principals or superintendents. of 379 teach

ers in Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin, 253 are
principals or superintendents, in Ohio 81%, or 90 out of
111;
in Wisconsin 54%, or 43 out of 79, of the principals
or superintendents were teaching the agriculture.(1)

There is apparently a marked tendency to make the teacher of agriculture also the principal of the school. promoters of agricultural education are viewing this with alarm, for obviously the teacher of agriculture cannot do his best work if he is burdened with administrative and supervisory duties.

Hence, some of the recent legislation

Тае

prohibits all outside and additional work when the state pays part of the teacher's salary. Thus Bill No. 265s, which is now pending in the legislature demands that

"the instructor shall give his time exclusively to the work
of this (agricultural) course or to closely related branches,
and he shall not supervise work in the grades below the high
school. Further, he must not be the principal of the high
school unless the number of teachers in such school shall
not exceed three" Lines 99 - 104.

From a wider point of view, it is possible that the
The school where the teacher

practice has its advantages.

of agriculture is principal is commonly small. Now, it is reasonable to believe that in the future all teachers in agriculture will be trained in an agricultural college and even more frequently than today, he will also have professional training. The extension of state-aid will help to bring that state of affairs about. He will, therefore, have

Robison-Jenks, High-school teachers of agriculture.

p.25.

3.

the rural point of view. He will not look to the city for
promotion, for, if he does not intend to remain permanently
in the teaching profession, he will look forward to the time
when he himself will be a farmer. There is no better way

to re-direct the rural high school. Again, all teachers
of agriculture will, before long, be employed for the full
year, and here too the fact that he is the principal of the
high school should make it possible to bring the school
closer to the people, because the principal has worked among
the people during the summer months directing the home-project
work. It will give the school a wider influence. For the se
reasons it is probable that the loss to agricultural instruc-
tion is fully balanced by the gain to the school. It does,
however, add another reason for a thoro training in educa-
tion, which must include much more than the socalled depart-
mental courses in agriculture.

A course for the training

of agricultural teachers should take this fact into consideration when it is outlining the work. Extra-mural duties.

Where agriculture is taught in the conventional way of teaching high school subjects, there will usually not be enough work to justify a special teacher, for schools with four-year courses in agriculture are not yet common. The teacher must, under these conditions, teach other subjects in addition, or devote part of his time to administrative and supervisory duties. The Massachussetts home-project plan provides for more intensive work. Here one instructor is (1) expected to devote his entire time to as few as twenty students.

1, Stimson. The Massachusetts Home-project plan.

p.99