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These Saturday morning classes are arranged in series of fall, 
spring, and summer or outdoor garden courses. The children’s 
year of Saturday work starts in the fall and interest at that time 
is centered about their greenhouse work. The instruction green- 
houses, three in number, are unique in their plan and their set-up. 
The spring course includes nature study and preparation for out- 
door gardens, with study of seed germination, sowing of seed, and 
making of garden plans. The summer work is in the outdoor 
garden. 
An outgrowth of the garden work was the establishment of < 
summer school for teachers of gardening. This lasted for air 
years. Those taking the year’s course formed themselves into an 
organization called the Garden Teachers Association. It has been 
a loyal and generous group contributing to funds for all appeals 
ever made by the Garden. 
This Children’s Garden project, a seasonal outgrowth of the 
Saturday morning classes, is an original pedagogical experiment 
which has been worked out with distinct success. In May, 1914, 
gardens in a temporary location were assigned to 125 out of the 
180 children who applied. Today, in a permanent location in the 
southeast portion of the Garden, first utilized in 1916, there are 
118 plots and two extensive flower borders. About 250 children 
register each spring for work in these plots. 
A most useful and attractive center for the work is provided 
by the Garden House, which was erected with City funds in 1916, 
and the main room furnished by Mrs. James H. Post. The formal 
Shakespeare Garden, presented and endowed by Mr. and Mrs. 
Henry C. Folger, and other features in and around the House, 
are gifts of the children, teachers, parents, and friends who have 
taken a sincere interest or had an active share in the work. 
The pattern, as laid down by the Curator of Elementary In- 
struction in accordance with the wishes of the Director, includes 
“self-discipline, knowledge at first hand, dignity of labor, financial 
support of our own work, generosity, ability to take a command 
and follow it, and ability to size up ourselves and our endeavors.” 
The success of the gardens themselves, as measured by the crop, 
is relatively unimportant compared with the fulfillment of the 
above pattern. However, each year an attempt is made to show 
