THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 25. JUNE, 1897. NO. 6. 



TEACHING HORTICULTURE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



PROF. W. W. PENDERGAST, STATE SUPT. OF SCHOOLS. 



I have not prepared anything for the printer, but I will say that 

 there are a great many things that are very desirable, things that 

 we all want to bring about and, indeed, must have in order to keep 

 up an interest in our public schools. When you consider that the 

 300,000 boys and girls, more or less, who attend the public schools 

 of Minnesota on an average quit school before they are twelve 

 years of age, that but few of them really know how to read (and you 

 would believe this if you should visit some of the schools and see 

 what blundering work they make in the attempt), that few of them 

 know much about the common rules of arithmetic or about the 

 world they live in, and, from these facts, judge how little data they 

 have for soil in which to grow the seeds of thought, 3'^ou will admit 

 that our school curriculum is overcrowded already. Our Brother 

 Barrett wants to introduce forestry into the school, Brother Hays 

 wants to introduce agriculture, the horticultural society wants to 

 see more progress made in the science of horticulture. I meet every 

 week people who say that the one great thing the boys and girls 

 should learn is how to eat and what to eat, that they may have a 

 sound body in which to develop a sound inind; that the one great 

 thing is to know how to take care of their bodily health, and that 

 that should be the main thing taught in the public schools. Many 

 of the best friends of education and of humanity say we must 

 devote more time to the teaching of physiology, with special refer- 

 ence to the effects of alcohol and narcotics on the human system. 

 The law requires such instruction, and we are trying to comply with 

 its requirements and are meeting with considerable success. Scores 

 of other subjects, all more or less important, are continuall}' de- 

 manding recognition. The reformers ask if a knowledge of the 

 subjects in which they are specially interested is not desirable, and, 

 when answered in the affirmative, reply, "Then put them into the 

 schools," and think the whole question is decided. 



