davis] SCHOOL-GARDENS 85 



instances as wholly to transform communities. It has been able to 

 show children of the country that they may do something worth while 

 right where they live, and make them content with their country life. 

 It ought to do much toward bringing about a wider human sympathy 

 by stimulating interests in nature which everyone has really at heart. 



The place of the school-garden in the elementary schools is to fur- 

 nish a rational or working basis or center for a great deal of the work 

 included in nature-study. Much of the failure of nature-study to 

 accomplish what it ought has been due to its fragmentary character. 

 Its greatest success as a school subject has been where the child's 

 activities have been enlisted in the real business of his life. The 

 business of rearing plants involves more of nature than almost any 

 activity in which the child may participate. The problem of school 

 gardening for the teacher is to make it the center of as large and 

 varied a circle of activities as possible. He is thus able to make 

 much of the formal work of the school seem worth while to the child, 

 thereby increasing the efficiency of his work. This gain in efficiency 

 and interest in itself is, to my mind, sufficient to meet objections as 

 to lack of time, crowded curriculum, etc. This idea has been excel- 

 lently worked out in some schools, notably in the State Normal 

 School, Hyannis, Mass. 



The method of using the school-garden and the point of view in its 

 use as part of the school equipment depend, of course, on the situa- 

 tion of the school. In the city school the aim is social rather than 

 economic. The success hitherto attending children's gardens in cities 

 has been greatest where the social aim was the only aim. Experi- 

 ence has shown that the gain in civic conscience, which reduces 

 vandalism and destructive activities, would be more than sufficient to 

 meet all expenses. 



Dr. B. T. Galloway says of the Washington, D. C, gardens : 

 "Civic pride is taught and respect for the property rights of others is 

 learned. While stealing and vandalism were weekly occurrences the 

 first summer the gardens were in existence, not one case was reported 

 during 1904. . . . The point of view from which Washington ap- 

 proached the work has been that of arousing civic pride by giving 

 better school surroundings and improvement of backyards." 



The work of this nature that has attracted the most attention in 

 the United Stales is that of Mrs. Henry Parsons, in New York 

 City. 3 In [902 she began the work of transforming a city desert of 



3 See this journal, Vol. I, No. 6, November, 1905. 



