MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 145 



their teacher in caring for phmts and flowers, will scarcely regard that teacher 

 as their enemy or as a person whom it is their chief pleasure to annoy and 

 disobey. 



Children delight in flowers. They have a natural love for them. It is 

 among the chief pleasures of childhood to hie away to the woods or to the fields 

 and seek for flowers and to return with these beautiful sunbeams which they 

 have gathered and display them for the admiration and approval of their 

 elders. In employing flowers in the home and in the school life, we are simply 

 availino; ourselves of one of the better instincts of the child's nature to aid us 

 in endeavoring to properly form his mind and character. The neglect of this 

 influence is in keeping with our unfortunate disregard of many of the nobler 

 facts of our natures, but which if appealed to, strengthened and cultivated, 

 would develop purer lives. 



This power of enjoying the beauty of flowers, of appreciating nature in her 

 varied changes, is something beyond the mere universal part of our being, and 

 which it should be early a part of our methods of instruction to draw out and 

 develop. Men may grow to adult life and become, in a degree, not unlike the 

 ox that sees in the plant, however beautious to the discerning eye it may be, 

 only that which will satisfy the cravings of its stomach ; not unlike the ox that 

 sees only in the noblest statue of antiquity a senseless object that obstructs its 

 path, but in which is revealed to the eye capable of discerning it, the sublime 

 idea created in the mind of the sculptor, and wrought by his genius into the 

 lifeless marble which he carved. 



I am aware of all that can be said of the difficulty or apparent impossibility 

 of securing all this in our country school grounds. I know the usual condi- 

 tion of country school buildino;s and grounds, — not unfrequently with tlie panes 

 broken out of the windows, a panel or two of the front door stove in, the sides 

 cut and marked with rude and obscene representations, the fences broken 

 down, and altogether a general appearance that the riotous and destructive 

 qualities of the occupants have full license and play. But I only reply that if 

 boys are thus allowed to impair and destroy what they should be taught and 

 required to preserve, that they will do it, and that just as easily will they 

 respect and care for these things when it is expected of them and it is made 

 their duty so to do. AVe find in some villages elegant school buildings fur- 

 nished with all the appliances for the instruction, comfort, and convenience of 

 the pupils, and the grounds adorned with trees, shrubbery, and flowers. I can 

 cite many such instances that have come under my notice, as the graded school 

 building and grounds at Paw Paw. I remember that in Auburn, N. Y., 

 the grounds in front of the ward school on West Genesee street, one of the 

 finest streets in that beautiful city, were kept in a condition to be one of the 

 most attractive alonof the street. In some of the other ward schools of the citv 

 the reverse was the case. There was no difference in the pupils, but the mat- 

 ter was simply due to the fact that in the one case it was done and in the other 

 it was not. 



There is no more difliculty in having pleasant school grounds, beautified and 

 adorned with trees and flowers, in the country than in cities and villages, if 

 the people of the district so determine, and take measures to effect. Let 

 them manifest a desire to secure this result, set out the trees and plants, 

 encourage the children to aid in caring for and in protecting them, by com- 

 mending all efforts in that direction, and by deprecating all measures adverse 

 to it^ and by severely punishing all damages whioh are viciously done. Instead 

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