SCHOOL-GARDENS IN PHILADELPHIA 213 



now entering on its second season. The part of the Association 

 in it has been that of the friend only ; for from the beginning the 

 Board of PubHc Education, and especially Mr. H. H. Hubbert, 

 Chairman of the Committee under whose charge it came, listened 

 to the plea for this work to be undertaken. In Councils it has 

 found warm friends and none more so than Mr. George Mc- 

 Curdy, the President of Common Council. The history of school 

 gardens in Philadelphia already well shows that it matters not so 

 much whether the ideas of one or another group of individuals 

 are carried out as that the work shall he sanctioned and supported 

 by the people. It is because school-gardens have from the start 

 been conducted as a legitimate part of free public education in 

 Philadelphia that the pride and interest in them have been so 

 widespread and immediate. There is no interest more potent 

 than that bred of ownership, and there is no question but that the 

 response of the educational and financial authorities of the city to 

 the movement for school-gardens in Philadelphia, which has come 

 in an astonishingly short time, is due to their pride that this work, 

 which was immediately successful, is being conducted, not pri- 

 vately, but as a part of the public school system. It appears that 

 the public is really interested in a movement only when public 

 money is invested in it and the prestige of the city at stake. An 

 amusing incident at the West Philadelphia Garden this year 

 shows that even the children appreciate the assumption of this 

 work by the city. "Who's givin' us this garden?" said a little 

 girl one day. '* The Board of Education," was the Supervisor's 

 reply. '' H'm ! Gettin' wiser every day," was the comment. 



One of the respects in which we feel most definitely the wisdom 

 of the school-garden experiment is in its reaction upon the schools. 

 The introduction of industrial education into the schools is a sub- 

 ject that is being much discussed in America to-day. The public, 

 generally, is demanding it, and the subject is under discussion in 

 one of our committees, but some experienced teachers of manual 

 training, notably the principal of our Central Manual Training 

 High School, Mr. William L. Sayre, do not believe such a course 

 wise. They caution us against overtaxing the mental and bodily 

 strength of children, believing also that the educational value of 

 manual training is best conserved by restricting it to the high 

 school period. School gardening is a very practical form of in- 

 dustrial training, and to its introduction no educator has given 



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