The Classroom in the Fields
Rural Washington voters approve a bold, experimental agricultural campus on the bluffs overlooking the Yakima River.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At the annual school election on March 5th, the people of Kiona and Benton City voted to purchase a forty-acre tract on the bluff overlooking the Benton City townsite. In doing so, they placed themselves on record in favor of the most modern system of practical public school education. The purchase was authorized to carry out a plan similar to the model country-life high school in Farragut, Tennessee. The school aims to emphasize practical horticulture, agriculture, domestic science, and manual training, intending to equip pupils with the knowledge to make farm life profitable and satisfying. The curriculum integrates traditional academic subjects with an 'agricultural halo,' ensuring that physics and chemistry are applied to soil fertility, farm drainage, and animal husbandry. Furthermore, the school intends to be a hub for the entire community, hosting 'moonlight socials' before each full moon, where residents gather for music, conversation, and collective learning.
“The authorities believe that much agriculture can be taught through other subjects and that all the regular academic subjects may be given a ‘country-life twist.’”
This 1915 experiment reflects a long-standing tension in Washington's educational history: the push to make schooling directly relevant to the state’s industrial and agricultural backbone. While the 'model farm' approach has largely faded from public high schools, the debates over vocational versus liberal arts curricula continue to shape school board elections across the region today.
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