204 
Tens of thousands of school pupils from the age of six or eight 
to twenty-two or twenty-three come each year, from elementary 
and high schools, teachers training schools, colleges and univer- 
sities, public, parochial, and other private schools, mostly in classes 
accompanied by their teachers. 
Guide Sheets 
To facilitate an orderly and effective study of the plants, classes 
are provided by the Garden with Guide Sheets, outlining the group 
or subject to be studied (Cf. pp. 250-255). These outlines help 
to insure and enrich the follow-up work and review which the 
teacher conducts at school, based upon the trip to the Garden. 
The Garden emphasizes the fact that a visit to the plantations 
should be chiefly for the purpose of getting, at first hand, source- 
material for classroom study and discussion. 
Importance of Class Trips 
For a teacher to take a class of 40 to 50 or more pupils across 
the city—the trip usually requiring a ride on the surface cars or 
subway trains—involves a considerable expenditure of time and 
effort, and a great responsibility on the part of the teacher, and we 
feel that the Botanic Garden should do everything possible to make 
sure that the trip does not turn out to be merely a pleasant (or 
unpleasant) outing, but that it shall yield the largest possible edu- 
cational returns. Under no other circumstances can these trips 
possibly be justified. It is so easy for class visits to botanic 
gardens and museums to degenerate into merely a lark or an hour's 
freedom from classroom routine. 
At the Botanic Garden the classes are in charge of competent 
and experienced instructors, able to command the respect and 
confidence of school principals and regular teachers and, above 
all else, to interest, inspire, and instruct the pupils. The work 
cannot be done properly if it is delegated to various members of 
staff who have little to commend them except that they know plants 
and happen to be available at the particular hour when the class 
arrives. 
Docentry is an educational process which should not be at- 
tempted with children or adolescents except by an experienced 
