We can afford only one fad in war time, and that fad is to be farming. It will be useless for little William Corning Smith, aged 12, of Kankakee, Illinois, to stick his little spade into his back yard before his admiring parent. Individual, unorganized work on land not properly prepared for agriculture may be worse than useless; it may be wasteful. Random efforts not coördinated in a general scheme for the utilization of school children in large units will be foolish, misdirected effort. State, county, and even national organization are required to make available this latent power. Purely isolated effort will be fruitless, both as aids to the nation and education for the child. Organized work will bring the greater moral advantages of developing the power of concentration along with the interest in national and community service. It will evoke an esprit de corps which may be capitalized for national use and shift the usual interest in gangs and athletics, both normal and natural, to work which opens the way to loyal industrial educational training.[8] [8] Columbia University War Papers. This was written by John Dewey early in the spring of 1917 in a message addressed to the principals and teachers of America on how school children may be so organized for farm service as to Aid the nation; Increase the food supply of the country in war time and during a world-wide shortage of food; Conscript the national enthusiasm for athletics to national usefulness; Assure a vigorous and healthy rising generation; Reap the advantage of organized effort with its moral and educational results; Develop constructive patriotism. As may be gathered, Dewey's idea was not only to organize the rural and village children for farm work but also to send the city children into the country in camps and tent colonies. He said further that the plan was not a dream and that it could be done. A friend in writing to me of his attempts in Massachusetts to make the dream a reality said, "It is like nailing a jellyfish to a board." Referring to the difficulty of obtaining competent boys, on the one hand, and of convincing farmers of the value of city-boy labor, on the other, he further stated that it was a difficult proposition to sell something we did not have to somebody who did not want it.