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leave the question of health not because it is important but in 
order that I may discuss the value of garden work as a means 
of education in mind and character training and development. 
2. School gardening affords an opportunity to bring children 
into contact with their environment. Too many people are out 
of touch with their natural surroundings. T hey have not learned 
to see. Garden work is work with nature. How many people 
grow to manhood and womanhood without learning to appreciate 
the beautiful things in nature that are all around them! This 
work develops a love for nature. It may be difficult to love a 
potato or a carrot or a tomato but one can easily love a garden. 
The boy or the girl who prepares the soil, plants the seed, cares 
for the little shoot as it breaks through the earth, waters the 
plant, trims the vine, sprays the leaves to keep off the destroying 
insects, and finally harvests the crop, has learned some valuable 
lessons. He has learned to look for and to see some things that 
he has never looked for and seen before. He is a better observer 
and good observation is a necessary attribute of good education. 
3. The school garden teaches generosity. It teaches the boys 
and the girls that before it will give anything in return it is neces- 
sary that much shall be given; good soil, good seed, good 
fertilizer; good care. It is give, give, give, in caring for a 
garden; but in the end the garden returns many times more than 
has been given. It teaches that reward only comes as a result 
of painstaking effort in worthwhile undertakings. “Cast thy 
bread upon the waters and after many days it shall return unto 
thee,” is a principle of education. , 
A generous nature is necessary to a well-rounded education. 
The school garden helps to develop this. 
4. School gardening teaches self-respect. Dida boy ever take 
you to his plot or to his back yard to show you his garden. If 
he invited you to go it was probably a good garden. Did he 
hang his head and blush while showing it to you? Or did he 
give evidence of thinking well of himself because of his accom- 
plishment? Did you ever know a school girl who was ashamed 
of the garden of flowers which she had cultivated and made a 
thing of beauty? 
