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THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



Also to meet the needs of feeble-minded 

 crippled and delicate children and for 

 reformatories and prisons and had trained 

 a secretary whose point of view would 

 enable him to grasp and handle the sit- 

 uation. 



Although children's gardens are not 

 the cure for all the ills of life, they are 

 the missing link which will help to solve 

 many of the problems educators and 

 philanthropists are wrestling with, for 

 when properly conducted they should in- 

 clude nature study, entomology, botany, 

 elementary agriculture, manual and phys- 

 ical training, household industries, math- 

 ematics, color work, composition, civics 

 (covering individual ownership and trie 

 private care of public property) econ- 

 omy, thrift, hygiene and many other sub- 

 jects vital to mental, moral and material 

 prosperity. 



The Children's School Farm at the 

 Jamestown Exposition was the first pub- 

 lic work of the League, and an answer to 

 many of the inquiries regarding the 

 movement. 



The comments of the visitors and of 

 the parents of the children who have 

 worked on the farm give an indication 

 of the many useful sides of the move- 

 ment. A gentleman from Philadelphia, 

 after watching the work go on, summar- 

 ized his opinion with the remark. "You 

 are teaching children to be of some use 

 in the world." A mother of a small far- 

 mer, in the most enthusiastic language, 

 said, "You have taught my children some- 

 thing I thought they would never learn, 

 the importance of little things." An- 

 other mother, who had visited the Farm 

 several times, had examined carefully 

 our very simply-equipped kitchen and 

 watched the children at work. Her in- 

 terest had been so aroused, because as 

 she said, "the Children's School Farm 

 this summer has excited in my daughters 

 an almost unbelievable interest in the 

 house-keeping of their own' home." One 

 little girl, while being shown how to mop 

 a floor remarked, "I never did anything 

 of this kind before T came to the Chil- 

 dren's Farm, but mother says it is a very 

 good idea for me to learn housework." 



While the whole scheme is entirely 

 new to the majority of people and there 

 are almost endless details about which 

 thev have asked questions, the two things 



which have appealed to the public and 

 excited their interest more than all the 

 rest, were the simplicity of the equip- 

 ment and the very evident interest of 

 these children in the homely duties of 

 the little farmhouse, workshop and gar- 

 den. To be sure, this work has been 

 presented to the children in a new light 

 and in a different spirit, nevertheless, 

 they did much hard work which soiled 

 their hands and tried their patience, and 

 they have, in some degree, come closer 

 to the mysteries which surround their 

 daily lives and gained a much higher con- 

 ception of manual labor. 



The air is pulsating with the Chil- 

 dren's School Farm movement. It is 

 useless to attempt to send children into 

 the country from the cities unless they 

 are first taught something of the Book 

 of nature. It is useless to attempt 

 to keep the farm children at home unless 

 the Book of Nature is attractively in- 

 terpreted to them. The school garden 

 is the only practical method to bring 

 about these results. 



Promoting the class for training 

 teachers in children's school gardens in 

 connection with the New York Univer- 

 sity Summer School will be the League's 

 special work this season. This Depart- 

 ment of School ' Gardens is under the 

 directorship of Henry Griscom Parsons, 

 the League's Secretary. The class was 

 established in 1906 under the most ideal 

 conditions. The course is designed to 

 prepare teachers to take charge of or 

 teach in children's gardens. The course 

 consists of lectures and laboratory per- 

 iods. The lectures take up the theory 

 and practice of the work ; the laying out 

 and planting of the garden ; soil, plant 

 and fertility problems. The needs of 

 different localities are considered. At- 

 tention is given to insect life and meth- 

 ods of presenting it to children. The 

 laboratory period is spent in the work- 

 shop and garden, where the students do 

 all the practical details of actual work. 

 There is a beautiful grapevine arbor run- 

 ning across the garden which affords 

 shade for short talks. The lecture course 

 is given out under the fine old trees on 

 the campus, from which a beautiful view 

 of the Hudson and East Rivers can be 

 obtained. The course is from July first 

 to August eleventh. Send for particulars. 



