Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: government; the influence of the rural home; the improvement of the rural school; the leadership of the rural church; the attainment of adequate social and recreative facilities; the maintenance of a high standard of morals; the beautifying of homesteads and roadsides. These are practical working groups of rural problems, stated here in order to show a line of approach, or a point of view in teaching agriculture. It must be fairly evident at the outset that efficient teaching of agriculture must and will help solve the problems of farm improvement, of marketing, and of community life, especially when we consider agriculture as an industry, as a business, and as a life, and teach it in this threefold aspect. chapter{Section 4n NATURE-STUDY PRECEDING AGRICULTURE Nature-study principles. Since agricultural material and agricultural life deal constantly with the things and processes of nature, an intelligent understanding of, and sympathy with, these things and processes would seem necessary in order that men and women be able to adjust themselves best to the environment in which they " h've, move, and have their being." Nature-study proposes to give boys and girls in the earlier grades of the public schools this acquaintance with, and interest in, the natural world which will furnish a basis for further study of the pure and applied sciences to those who continue in school, and for those who drop out of school, and this will be by far the larger number, an intelligent interest in nature which will contribute to their success and happiness in whatever walk of life they may follow. When we think of nature-study in a sane way, there can be no objection to it, either from the ultra-practical farmer or the most theoretical pedagogue. Before the seventh grade of the public scho...