158 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [5:6— sept., 1909 



their individual lunches and be served with the output of their 

 gardens? With a teacher at the head of the table, a social atmos- 

 phere might be created which would offer much to many socially 

 starved boys and girls, and which would materially lessen the 

 friction in their future lives. 



Each spring special vegetable dinners are given by the higher 

 classes. The girls prepare the vegetables, while the boys do the 

 heavy work. It is a pretty and a natural sight to see the girls 

 becomingly attired in aprons, stirring the cooking vegetables and 

 the boys industriously peeling potatoes, cleaning lettuce, etc., 

 with a large table, prettily decorated, the center of it all. The 

 value of such lessons is too far reaching and too complex to receive 

 further comment. 



Many of the formal demands made by society are taught the 

 children through creating awkward situations and by showing the 

 children the correct procedure. Marches and music aid in adding 

 pleasure to such lessons. 



Nature-study should aim in a decided way to give the children 

 material that they can use, material that will help to govern their 

 future conduct. In the study of bacteria by experimentation, 

 the boys and girls receive information that is most vital in deter- 

 mining their future conduct. 



The vitality of our main efforts seems to rest in money, and the 

 financial returns from the gardens have made the garden work 

 real. Any business, as it develops and becomes more complex, 

 calls for new methods, so the increasing financial and business 

 side of the gardens and the need for more practicability in school 

 work called for a school bank. 



One was organized last term. Officers were elected from a 

 section of the seventh-grade arithmetic class and they went to 

 work with a great deal of enthusiasm. Fixtures, railing, etc., 

 were made just as bank-like as possible by the manual craining 

 classes. The training school print shop printed checks, notes, 

 bankbooks, and all other necessary papers. The bank took con- 

 trol of the gardens and leased the plots to the children from the 

 fifth grade up. Actual leases were used. They were made out 

 with the assistance of the teachers, taken before a school notary, 

 signed, and sealed. The pupils promised to give the bank 15% 

 of the output of the gardens, to do all in their power to get large 

 returns from the land, to take care of all buildings and tools used 



