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Interest in agricultural education continues to increase. The attempt to teach agriculture is no longer confined to the agricultural college and special agricultural school. Methods of teaching the most important facts and the elementary principles of agriculture are discussed in the meetings of most of our educational associations. There is a large demand from teachers and school officers for any printed matter on this subject that will help them in determining what to teach, and how to teach it, and how to organize schools and adjust courses of study so as to get the best results from the new studies without losing the best in the old. This bulletin consists of papers read before the American Association for the Advancement of Agricultural Teaching at its third annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, November 12, 1912. The papers presented in this bulletin are as follows: (1) The opportunity and responsibility for the preparation of teachers of agriculture (a) by agricultural colleges in their regular courses and classes (H. L. Rusell), (b) by agricultural colleges in special courses and classes organized for this work (Kenyon L. Butterfield); (2) The first year's work in agriculture in the high school (W. G. Hummel); (3) What relation should exist between the experiment stations and the secondary schools of agriculture (A. A. Soule); and (4) The use of land in connection with agricultural teaching (a) in special agricultural schools (C. G. Selvig), (b) in high schools (Rufus W. Stimson), (c) in elementary schools. Appended are: (1) Summary of information from special schools or current bulletins; (2) Demonstration work at Northwest School of Agriculture, Crookston, Minnesota; (3) List of 1912 suggestive topics for "summer practicum" work, Northwest School of Agriculture, Crookston, Minnesota; (4) Massachusetts State-aided vocational agricultural education: Examples of the income of pupils from farm work during attendance at school in 1912; and (5) Questionnaires sent out. Individual sections contain footnotes. [Best copy available has been provided.]

Education in and through agriculture is attracting the attention and interest of teachers in schools of all grades and of many people, both in the country and in the city. Only within recent years have agriculture and allied subjects come to be an important part of the courses of study in elementary and secondary schools and in normal schools whose purpose and function it is to prepare teachers for these lower schools. For this reason there is still much uncertainty as to what and how much of these subjects should be taught, how the matter selected should be arranged, what methods of teaching should be used, and what should be the organization and support of the schools doing this work. Hence, any contribution toward the answer of these questions is welcomed by teachers, school officers, legislators, and people who have children to educate and who contribute to the support of the schools. This bulletin consists of papers read before the American Association for the Advancement of Agricultural Teaching at its second annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, November, 1911. This association is composed of persons engaged in agricultural education in American colleges, normal schools, high schools, elementary schools, and special schools of agriculture. Its membership includes able men and women in all parts of the United States who have acquaintance with the present usage and the needs of such education in all sections. These papers constitute a valuable contribution to the solution of several problems of agricultural education, especially in the secondary schools. The six papers presented in this bulletin are as follows: (1) Essentials in a state system of agricultural education (F. W. Howe); (2) The need for reliable scientific data regarding social and economic conditions in rural communities (E. C. Higbie); (3) The proper equipment of an agricultural high school (D. O. Barto), followed by a discussion of this paper by D. J. Crosby; (4) The Smith's Agricultural School and agricultural education in Massachusetts (R. W. Stimson); (5) The unprepared teacher of agriculture in high schools and colleges of education (A. V. Storm); and (6) What is done to prepare teachers of secondary school agriculture (A. C. Monahan. [Best copy available has been provided.]

The purpose of the American Association for the Advancement of Agricultural Teaching, as stated in its constitution, is "to promote the teaching of agriculture and to devise ways and means for increasing the efficiency of such instruction in elementary and secondary schools and in colleges and universities." The time is opportune perhaps for discussing what ought to be the immediate policy of the association in putting its purpose into effect. One matter has already been settled. It has been agreed that for the present efforts shall be centered principally upon promoting the teaching of agriculture in the secondary schools, by devising ways and means of making that teaching more efficient. One who has marked the recent multiplication in the number of secondary schools attempting to teach agriculture can not but commend restriction of attention to the important problems which these schools present. Appended are: (1) 1913 summer practicum (home project) work of the University of Minnesota Northwest School of Agriculture, Crookston, Minn; (2) Students' reports on 1912 and 1913 summer practicum work at Crookston, Minn; (3) Use of land by high schools teaching agriculture. Returns for school year 1911-12; (4) The cooperative use of equipment and illustrative material in teaching agriculture; and (5) Massachusetts State-aided vocational agricultural education-- Examples of the income of pupils from farm work during attendance at school in 1913. [Best copy available has been provided.]

Constituting the first material accomplishment of the recently formed International Network of Rural Youth Researchers (INRYR), this annotated bibliography presents abstracts of 19 papers presented at the Fourth World Congress for Rural Sociology during the summer of 1976 at Torun, Poland in a seminar entitled "Rural Youth: Human Resource or Human Burden". While emphasis on rural youth and mode of presentation vary considerably, these papers constitute state of the art reviews relative to the country under discussion and address three major areas of concern: (1) the problem of preserving traditional rural values uhile simultaneously incorporating the more modern orientations of a technological society; (2) growing recognition on the part of most countries of the interdependency of social and economic development; and (3) the problem of preserving rurality and/or rural ethnicity while simultaneously meeting national goals. Differences between the orientations of developed and developing nations are presented in this collection, as is the general consensus that comprehensive, long term rural development policies and procedures are needed to deal with problems related to rural youth. Additionally, this bibliography presents subject and title/author indices, availability information, and a listing of current INRYR members by country, title, and address. (JC)

To facilitate research on rural issues, a task force composed of prominent rural residents and experts from universities in Illinois prepared this bibliography. Several thousand books, research reports, commission papers, government reports, and journal articles--most published after 1980--are listed in this bibliography. While focused on Illinois, the bibliography also covers material of national and international scope. The volume is divided into eight sections: (1) agriculture and agribusiness; (2) banks and financial intermediaries; (3) economic development; (4) rural education; (5) rural health issues; (6) local government; (7) social service; and (8) transportation. The entries in each section are listed by author. Each entry includes title, publisher, date, and an abstract. Entries of journal articles also include sources and page numbers. Each section is introduced with a literature review on the subject. The education section deals with school consolidation/reorganization issues, with particular focus on short- and long-term alternatives to consolidation. The majority of material in this section was intended to assist in policy making. Other topics covered in this section include school finance, curriculum (especially vocational curriculum needs), the general state of rural education, and materials for further research. Listings in the local government section focus on fiscal matters, management, government capacity and viability, and environmental concerns. (TES)

For a large portion of the children of the United States, vocational education must mean education in agriculture and the art of life on the farm. In recognition of this fact, agriculture is now taught in some way and to some extent in hundreds of public high schools and in the lower schools of many of the States. Possibly the greatest difficulty in teaching this subject is that of making is sufficiently concrete and practical. Too often the teaching begins and ends with the assignment and recitation of lessons from the pages of a textbook. To make the teaching effective, each lesson must follow the necessary pedagogical order from concrete practical application. The pupil must become an intelligent worker and director of his own work and must learn not merely by looking on and listening, but by intelligent participation. The "Home-project plan" worked out in Massachusetts within the last few years and now applied in the State-aided schools of that State makes such intelligent participation possible. By requiring boys to do productive work as means of instruction, it enables many boys to continue their studies in schools who otherwise would not be able to do so. By projecting the work of the school into the home in the vital way in which it does, it enlists the interest of parents and becomes a means of their education in this subject, thus affecting quickly the work on the farms of the community. Because of the wide interest in this subject, this bulletin, which is divided into four chapters, presents information on the following topics: (1) Chapter I: Vocational Agricultural Education (elements necessary to success; the Massachusetts home-project plan; prizes and home projects; home projects of nonresidents; salaries for home-project instruction and supervision; cultural and agricultural; and farming and good citizenship); (2) Chapter II: Agricultural Project Study (productive work and related study; project study suitable for vocational agricultural schools; project study suitable for vocational agricultural departments in selected high schools; project study concentration; project study and capacity of pupils; kinds of project knowledge; project study records; apportionment of project study, time, and materials; vegetable-growing project study; small fruit-growing project study; beekeeping project study; poultry-keeping project study; sheep and goat husbandry project study; swine husbandry project study; ornamental planting project study; third-year and fourth-year project study; project study versus subject study; project study perspective; suggestions for the agricultural instructor; and conclusions); (3) Chapter III: Project Study Outlines for Vegetable Growing (project study and vegetable groups; project study by vegetable groups; and project study by vegetable varieties; and (4) Chapter IV: Agricultural Project Study Bibliography (agricultural papers and periodicals; free bulletins, circulars and reports; text, exercise, and reference books, bulletins, circulars, and reports; agricultural project study bibliography, arranged for ready reference; and publishers and their addresses. An appendix presents the types of Massachusetts agricultural schools (by William T. Bawden). An index is also included. Individual sections contain footnotes. (Contains 11 plates.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

This bulletin represents a thesis presented by the late Harry Percy Barrows to the faculty of George Washington University in 1919 for the degree of doctor of philosophy. It furnishes an historic record that should be very helpful in the future development of instruction in agriculture in this country. Since secondary instruction in agriculture was developed first in the institutions that later became the colleges of agriculture, this paper covers in a masterly way the early development of collegiate agriculture. Contents of this bulletin include: (1) History of agriculture in secondary schools; (2) State aid for secondary agriculture; (3) Agriculture as taught in some secondary schools; (4) Federal aid for vocational agriculture; (5) Training teachers of agriculture; and (6) Summary of study. A bibliography is included. Individual sections contain footnotes. (Contains 2 tables.) [Best copy available has been provided.]