Morris Tribune

Agriculture in the Schools.

It would seem highly proper that those branches that have a direct application to agriculture should be taught in our public schools, especially in a county so thoroughly given to farming as Stevens county. It is generally acknowledged that farming requires something more than mere muscular power; that brains must cooperate with muscle in order to obtain the best results. Scientific principles every day find a wider application in the raising of crops, the breeding and development of stock and the methods of handling the products of the farm. This being true, our public school system should allow the teaching of those principles in our common schools.

A writer on this subject well remarks that our boys and girls should be early taught that drudgery is not now a necessary condition of farming, that it is an industrial business which should be conducted on business principles, and that brain force exerts a greater influence than mere muscular energy.

Especially should our country schools be schools for farmers. They are supported by farmers, the pupils are farmers' sons and daughters, and the majority of them will make farming their life work. For those who aspire to the professions there are schools especially adapted to their needs, and specific professional instruction should not be paid for out of public funds. Farmers should take a greater interest in their schools, and see that good teachers are employed who are not inculcating, in their instruction, false and pernicious ideas of life. Education is something more than a privilege. It is a duty, and the parent who neglects this duty to his children does them a cruel injury that no amount of money he leaves them can ever make good.