The Massachusetts Home-Project Plan of Vocational Agricultural Education. Bulletin, 1914, No. 8. Whole Number 579

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.]