Correlation of field and class work in farming

Title

Creator

Tibbs, Jollie H.

Language

English

Year

1916

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

CORRELATION OF FIELD AND CLASS WORK IN FARMING. By Jolue H. Turns. Principal, Central Luzon Agricultural School. The intermediate school devoted to farming is of much more recent date than is the agricultural college. The methods and the scope of activities of the latter have been definitely worked out; but, as conditions in the college are so different from those in the school of intermediate grade, the attempt to imitate them would defeat the aims of the more elementary school. The work of the course in farming is not to develop new scientific facts, to add to the store of agricultural knowledge, or to train technical specialists. Its work is rather to train a pupil through actual experience, supplemented somewhat by field demonstra tions and classroom instruction, to become a useful citizen capa ble of producing a comfortable livelihood from the soil. The value of the training depends on the degree of each pupil’s participation in farm activities. It follows that special care should be given to the arrangement and supervision of field and shop work. The importance of this industrial work as determining the pupil’s promotion, makes it necessary to provide a grading system which is just to the pupil and yet is not too cumbersome for the teacher. The value of individual projects over communal activities has been thoroughly shown in gardening and in home agricultural projects. Whenever possible, work of considerable duration ought to be assigned on an individual basis. The pupil should be held responsible for the work outlined, and he should be given credit for definite results accomplished. To produce a com mercial crop of staple products brings in enough varied ac tivities to supply excellent training. With the industrial work properly planned, the pupil has ample time during the three years of the course in farming to participate in the other essential activities of the school. While individual projects are of great importance, the place of group or communal work must not be overlooked. Much work can be done most efficiently by group labor. There is a mistaken idea that group labor by the pupils demands the more or less continuous presence of an instructor. The amount of work performed by the average group under an earnest pupil acting as foreman clearly shows this error. As a rule the work 267 268 THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN will be well done if this leader understands that he will be held responsible for the work accomplished and will be supported in his endeavors by the teacher in charge. Group labor gives an excellent opportunity to develop ex ecutive ability and initiative. Too often a teacher discovers that some pupils make successful group leaders and then con tinues to appoint the same ones time after time, ignoring the claims of other pupils who might do as well or better. A definite rotation of leaders is necessary in order to give the practice in group leading which is due to each advanced pupil. The extent to which they may be placed in charge of the work of other pupils may be open to question. Seventh-grade boys as a rule will do creditable work as foremen, and many sixth graders show considerable ability. The attitude of the pupils toward the work and toward the leader is usually satisfactory. It depends largely on the attitude of the teacher in charge. The grading of industrial work presents little difficulty when the pupils are assigned to individual projects. Unless the grad ing of group work is definitely organized, it may lead to injustice. A teacher may allow the pupil’s classroom record to influence his industrial rating, thus insuring the mentally bright but indus trially inefficient pupil too high a rating. Sometimes, with an inefficient system of records, a pupil will establish early in the school year a reputation for good or poor work. He may go through the greater part of the year’s session on that record, un less the quality of his later work is so exceptional that it attracts attention. A system of industrial records which is giving satisfactory results is based on the keeping for each pupil of a properly ruled, individual record form. The activities on the school farm are CORRELATION OF FIELD AND CLASS WORK numbered, and the record is easily made by entering the date, the number of the project, and the rating. These data may be en tered daily in the permanent record, or they may be kept as a temporary record and a weekly summary entered in the per manent record. This will allow all of the pupil’s activities throughout the year to appear on one record. This definite rec ord of work presents special advantages in the assignment of pupils to group activities. Without such a system it is easy to reassign a pupil to the same project several times, thus depriving him of needed experience on other projects. The daily record may be kept by the group leader, but at frequent intervals it must be reviewed by the teacher who may make his record in red ink. Records kept in this manner provide a just basis for the industrial grades. The importance of the outdoor work as a basis for classroom instruction is too little appreciated. Every pupil should be familiar with all of the principal crop and animal activities of the school. This necessitates the holding of many recitations at the scene of the outdoor work. The industrial work should be carefully planned by the teacher, and it should be assigned during the class period. Each pupil should know what he is expected to accomplish. Much unsatisfactory field work is due to faulty assignment of the work. Lack of care in assigning work is shown when a pupil after several days’ plowing asks what is to be planted in the field on which he is working. Properly conducted, the classroom recitation will supplement the field work and make it intelligible. The recitation should aid in developing an intelligent thinking farmer capable of bringing increased knowledge and reasoning power to bear on 270 THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN his problems. Little time can be spared for the classroom study of material which does not bear on the pupil’s present or future problems. It may be interesting to the pupils to know that with a transplanting machine several times as many plants can be set out with the same amount of labor as can be planted under local conditions. This information, however, is worthless compared with a knowledge of the correct time at which to trans plant rice seedlings, and the characteristics of the seedlings of different varieties at different ages. Information not bearing directly on the work of the pupils is of importance as supple mentary reading matter, but it is not entitled to prolonged dis cussion in class. Definite instruction should be given on the crops with which the pupil will be concerned later in life. Practically every re gion has one or more principal crops on which the prosperity of the district depends, and the production of which will usually determine success or failure. These crops should receive special emphasis in the localities to which they are adapted. It is a waste of time for a pupil in the plain of Central Luzon to devote more than a limited amount of time to the study of abaca, which is entirely unadapted to that region. A pupil in the greater part of that locality should know all that will aid him in securing bigger and better yields of rice. The same principle applies to the other regions that are adapted to any one of the great staple crops. Climatic conditions cause a different sequence of activities at the various farm schools, and this necessitates a different arrangement of class work. Recitations should be so outlined that they follow the field and garden activities even though they do not follow the course of study or the textbook. Careful plan ning will permit this, and will still provide opportunity for the study of subjects not directly connected with the field work. It is necessary for the teacher to distinguish carefully be tween instruction which can be made alive by direct connection with the pupils’ lives, and matter which is of value only as information. The latter type of knowledge is important, and it should be used in its proper place. The reading of portions of selected texts, bulletins, farm papers and magazines should be required. Pupils should be required to report on the articles read, in such a manner as to assure the teacher that the more important features are understood.

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