in
developing that trained intelligence which is so great an asset in the
prosperity of any community. Thanks to the tireless efforts of men like
William H. Smith, the children's clubs have become one of the most
aggressive factors in educating rural communities to higher standards of
efficiency. There are many kinds of clubs--corn clubs, potato clubs,
tomato clubs, pig clubs. Anything which the children can raise is a
legitimate object of club activity. The work in the South started with
corn clubs.

The corn-club idea in Mississippi grew out of an educational experience
of Professor William H. Smith.[24] For years Professor Smith had taught,
in a mildly progressive way, the time-honored subjects which were
included in the study-course of the rural school. Two of Professor
Smith's students, a boy of twenty and a girl of seventeen, left school;
and they left, as the boy told Professor Smith very frankly, because the
school taught them very little that would be of use later on in the work
which they would be called upon to do. This boy expected to grow cotton;
the girl expected to marry the boy, manage his domestic affairs and
attend to the many duties which fall to the lot of women on a farm.

When he left school, the boy put it to Professor Smith in this way: "I
am goin' to be a farmer. I ain't fitted to be nothing else, and book
learnin' ain't helpin' me none. It's just a waste of time. I've got to
clear land and work it into a farm. If I was goin' to be a bookkeeper or
an engineer, or somethin', what you are teachin' me here might help; but
I can't remember that I have ever learned a thing since I got the hang
how to figure the interest on a mortgage, that will be of any account to
me on a farm. Almost all the boys has got to be a farmer like me. You
know, professor, it appears to me like these schools for the people
ought to be teachin' the children of the people how to make a livin' on
the farm--how to make life better and easier, instead of just makin' us
plum disgusted with ourselves."

This experience, standing out among a multitude of similar experiences,
led Professor Smith to an interest in some form of educational work that
would help boys and girls in their lives on the farm. The outcome of his
thinking and experimenting, combined with the thinking and experimenting
of many another capable educational leader, is the club idea for boys
and girls alike.

There was a real need for the corn club. For the y