Schools for the manual vocations, they believe, may be desirable for negroes and Indians and perhaps for the people in the next town or even possibly for their neighbors' children-but for their own children, never. These, they think, are destined for higher and better things. The public tolerates and even patronizingly advocates a smattering of so-called "manual training" or "agriculture" provided it does not displace foreign languages or abstract mathematics; but the people of America who vote do not desire real vocational training in the manual trades given to their own children. Real manual education has therefore only been successful among two classes of persons, first, among the subject races and peoples such as negroes, Indians and public charges and, second, among the rich governing class whose foresight and experience in large affairs have shown to them the need of manual education for their sons. The schools for dependents and the expensive private schools, such as the wonderful country life schools of England and Switzerland, have thus far been the conspicuous successes in training in manual work.

The rise and development of agricultural education are an example of the pressure which public opinion exerts toward emasculating all attempts to give real and practical public training for manual labor. The Morrill Act passed by Congress in 1863 set aside public lands for the support of colleges teaching agriculture and the mechanic arts. Certainly the act contemplated a practical education that would fit men to become farmers and mechanics. But today no agricultural college in America pretends to give more than a smattering of farm practice despite the fact that there are more town than farm boys in the agricultural colleges. The agricultural colleges turn out excellent technologists in agriculture and its related sciences. Some of these become farmers but they learn farming elsewhere, although they study agriculture at college. From 1905 to 1915 many states created secondary agricultural schools which were planned to give very practical farm training to farm boys. Extensive systems of such schools were introduced in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia, Georgia and other states. But public demand forced these schools to devote much time to the academic subjects and in turn to minimize their attention to the practical phases of farming. The schools thus either became academic with a smattering of text-book and laboratory study of agriculture or they were forced to the wall.

THE DUTY OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERS

Because the people of America do not want manual education for their children, the burden is the greater upon educators and other leaders of public opinion to persistently call to the attention of the public, whose ear they have, that public manual education is a necessity for the present and future good of society. We must teach and preach that "easy living" cannot be the lot of all and therefore it is unsocial and immoral for those who have not earned it. We must glorify manual labor by treating it fairly and squarely. We must educate manual labor by teaching it to labor better and more efficiently. We must hold forth manual work as a vocation which pays better in life and living than a clerkship. The farm has more of life than the ribbon-counter; the machine shop pays better wages than the bank-cage.

Public opinion can also be led and directed by means of a few privately-supported schools which are independent of public opinion. Schools like Hampton leap the entire gap in education by frankly and efficiently training American boys-not Indians, nor negroes, nor public dependents-but American boys of good stock for successful work in manual occupations. Such schools if successful become popular by the superior ability of their graduates to earn money in the trades and in turn serve as beacon lights for the slowly following public opinion and public education.

Public schools training for life-which is training for workwill make boys better farmers, better laborers, and better mechanics. By so doing they will save America.

EDUCATION FOR HOME LIFE ON THE FARM

BY JESSIE FIELD, M.S.,

Town and Country Secretary, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations of the United States.

Country life can advance just as fast as its homes reach their best. Everyone knows that a country home at its best is the finest type of home in the world. And some country homes have reached this ideal these days when modern conveniences and comforts are as available in the country as in the city and they have come into a great heritage of reality and beauty and richness of life and spirit. On such homes as these, the new kind of country community has arisen where the chance that comes to the boys and girls surpasses that to be found anywhere else. Of course, the great majority of country homes have not come into their own and yet the past few years have seen a great wave of progress come in this special line. Naturally, perhaps, the economic side of things about country life interested people first but we soon saw as a farmer expressed it: "It's not much use to grow better corn and live stock to get more money, if we can't use that money to make better homes. And how are we going to have better homes if we don't train the girls for it?" And it is a big step in our development of country life that we have come to recognize the fundamental importance of training for home life in order that we may make our homes all that it is possible for them to be in the country.

THE BETTER EQUIPMENT OF THE MODERN FARM HOME

Not long ago I went to visit some country friends of mine. The man had just put up a new barn and wanted me to see it before dark. I hurried into the house to speak to the lady and saw they had electric lights. Before I had a chance to say anything about them, however, I went on out to see the new barn. It was a very modern, convenient barn. The man stepped inside the door and turned on electric lights all over it, even in the top of the wheat bin. "Well," I said, "this is surely up to date. Electric lights in your barn, too." Then he looked down and laughed and said, "Yes, you see that is the way we happened to have them up at the house. The contractor said it wouldn't cost but a little extra to run them on up to the house." That is the way our whole country life movement is turning these days. It is "running on up" to the home.

THE COUNTRY SCHOOL AND THE COUNTRY HOME

All live country schools these days are giving training in the art of home making. From the well-equipped laboratories of the consolidated schools and the simple practical teaching of cooking and sewing in one-room country schools, much of which is done in home kitchens, the girls are going out better fitted to do their work in country homes skillfully and efficiently.

The Mendota Beach School, out from Madison, Wisconsin, is a sample of a one-room country school which in the past few years has put in a sewing machine and a simple equipment for teaching cooking and where, with the help of the mothers of the community who come in on Friday afternoons, a helpful and thorough course in home making is being given.

Miss Agnes Samuelson, the county superintendent of Page County, Iowa, has issued a printed course of study in home making, thirty-two lessons, which are followed by the one hundred and thirty country teachers in that county with splendid results.

At the Oak Ridge School, the demonstration rural school of Winthrop Normal, Rock Hill, S. C., taught by Mrs. Hetty Browne, hot lunches are served, the material for which is partly furnished from the school garden. This idea of serving something warm at noon in country schools has become quite general throughout the United States and is one of the most practical ways in which boys and girls are trained for home life.

CORN AND CANNING AND OTHER CLUBS

Side by side with country schools as a great educational agency are the clubs which are promoted through the state and nation and the splendid extension work done from our state universities and colleges of agriculture. Canning and gardening clubs, sewing and cooking clubs, with the instruction and the contests and exhibits that go with them, have done great things to arouse interest and to set standards among country girls in their education for home life. The girl who has cleared a hundred dollars on a tenth of an acre of land, will not only use the money to get further training, but realizes that she has already mastered much that will help her make a better home and which will help her to decide to make her home in the country. A girl who enters in a bread judging contest gets in her mind a standard about bread which will never leave her satisfied again with sour, soggy bread. The girl who has seen the even stitches and the straight seams on the prize apron will always make her clothing more neatly after that. No one can measure the great educational value of these clubs, contests and exhibits. They should always stand side by side with the schools and be used to the utmost. They hold a great power for reaching and helping in a practical way in our training for home life on the farm.

MUSIC, ART AND LITERATURE IN THE FARM HOME

But there is something more than skill in cooking and sewing and in the science of home making that is needed. Into the home life on the farm there must come the joy and gladness of life; those who live there must see the blue of the sky and hear the song of the birds and share in the beauty around them. They must find there, how they may have a share in all the riches of the world-riches of music and literature and art. And with all this there must come the happy sharing of it all with neighbors. This is coming, too, these days in many country homes and we find every educational agency helping to bring it about. The State Normal of Kansas, at Emporia, sends out by parcels post victrolas and records with an interesting descriptive talk in regard to them to all country schools in the state desiring them. Many country schools have taken advantage of this. Many county libraries are being established now which bring good books within the reach of every country child. Most country schools have small libraries of their own and in almost every state, the state library commission furnishes free traveling libraries. Courses of reading are recommended, including a very good one, which is outlined by the United States Bureau of Education and for the completion of which a certificate is given.

SOCIAL SOLIDARITY IN THE OPEN COUNTRY

With all these things, we are growing into a new community consciousness and country people are getting together more. Country girls are having camps, country boys are going to short courses