IXTRODUCING AGRICULTURE INTO SCHOOLS 187 



to the percentage of disuse. The school-garden and the Sloyd bench 

 are aids in overcoming this shut-in condition. 



The country boy and girl are forced to a greater degree of employ- 

 ment of the physical powers and therefore secure a greater degree of 

 physical and mental development. The country boy or girl coming 

 to the city may seem clownish and awkward. There are certain 

 social conventionalisms that they have not learned, but send the city 

 boy or girl to the country and then see which has the better use of the 

 physical being, which responds most quickly and accurately to 

 external stimuli. It was not by accident that the men who do the big 

 business in cities, the men who lead in affairs, were born on farms. 

 They were not only born, but developed there through the abounding 

 activities of their physical beings. 



Will the children take an interest in the school-gardens ? They 

 will if their instructor has enthusiasm. In teaching there is nothing 

 without enthusiasm. If one doubts this let him see what drafts are 

 made upon the patient enthusiasm of the teachers in schools for the 

 feeble minded, without which there is no response, not even an 

 answering echo, be it never so faint. 



I have in mind a reform school in Massachusetts where there were 

 325 school-gardens just passing a fully realized consummation when 

 I visited it last fall. There had been no flagging of enthusiasm along 

 down the line from spring to late autumn. They had been revela- 

 tions to the human sparrows gathered in from the cobblestones of 

 Boston. I favor the school-gardens for city and town schools because 

 city and town children need to learn how to handle themselves. I 

 favor school-gardens for country schools because country children will 

 need in their business the knowledge they will gain. 



In the course of his address, President Wheeler of the University 

 of California, expressed his interest and sympathy with the move- 

 ment toward agricultural education. He was inclined, however, to be 

 suspicious of those things for which there are general demands, and 

 where those who make the demands do not know definitely what they 

 want. 



He expressed himself as having little faith in teaching science and 

 scientific subjects in the public schools because of the lack of mental 

 maturity of pupils in the grades. 



He indicated the need of making a pedagogical concept of the work 

 before attempting to teach it. The pupil should be brought into 

 intelligent connection with the common things that surround him. 



