Improving the School Grounds 111 



overcome the serious obstacles is worthy the atten- 

 tion of statesmen and club women. 



"Nearly every district has made an attempt. 

 That is one of the hard things to forget one of the 

 reasons so many districts fear to try again. They 

 had a spasm of civic righteousness an Arbor Day 

 revival and every patron dug a hole in the hard, 

 dry ground; every child brought a tree, some of 

 which were carried for miles with the roots exposed 

 to sun and wind and then they were planted and, 

 in some cases, watered for the summer; and the 

 days grew warm and the weeds grew high; and by 

 the next fall the two or three trees yet alive were not 

 noticed when the director went over with his mower 

 the Friday before school opened ; and so ended that 

 attempt at a schoolyard beautiful. 



"It ought to be possible to convince the patrons of 

 every district that a single acre of land is not suffi- 

 cient ground upon which to grow big, bright, broad- 

 minded boys and girls; that two, or three, or four 

 acres of land, well planned as to baseball diamond, 

 basketball court and a good free run for dare-base and 

 pull-away that such would give the state and the 

 world better results than if the land were devoted to 

 corn and alfalfa. This, I believe, is the first problem 

 of great magnitude to get the ground and it 

 must be considered. Children must play. The noon 

 hour, when they eat for five minutes and play 

 fifty-five minutes, is all-important in a child's life." 



