DEVELOPING THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE 

 OF SCHOOL-GARDENS 



LUTHER A. HATCH 

 Superintendent of Schools, DeKalb, 111. 



Something has been done along the Hne of school-gardens in 

 United States, but it is little when one considers the possibilities. 

 Some of the work has "taken" and may be considered established 

 but much that has been undertaken has fallen by the wayside. 

 Somehow not all the people have become enthusiastic advocates 

 of school-gardens. Until teachers know more about the work 

 that needs to be done in a successful school-garden, and how to 

 make it bear fruit from an educational standpoint they will be 

 slow to undertake the work. Until patrons see some use in the 

 school-garden they will be slow to give it their financial support. 

 It must reach over into the home and bear fruit. As long as there 

 is no well defined purpose to the work done, as long as it consists 

 of many little things, often unrelated and more or less useless, it 

 will be passed by as a fad and the school gardener will be looked 

 upon as a fiddler of second rank. As soon as it stirs up the boy 

 or girl to do better gardening at home and to think more about 

 what is done, then will it be looked upon as a useful adjunct of 

 the school and it will be well cared for by the community. 



In what follows an attempt will be made to indicate some lines 

 of work that may be done in connection with the school-garden 

 to establish it upon a sound basis. It is taken for granted that 

 the teacher understands that he is not "the whole thing." The 

 children should have a large share in projecting the work. This 

 means that the work is not to be imposed upon the children, as is 

 often done. 



Suppose for instance, that one is teaching in a farming com- 

 munity where grapes may be grown, but are not grown generally 

 because of ignorance of their culture. If the teacher is able to 

 interest her pupils in grape culture she can do them much good. 

 Together they may work out many interesting and profitable 

 problems. Let us see what can be done. 



The teacher and pupils can investigate the extent to which 

 grapes are grown in the territory about the school. This may be 



