horchem] school gardening 65 



The healthful, natural development of the minds and bodies 

 of the children of America is not too great an undertaking. In 

 its importance, it dwarfs all others. With the right training 

 of youth, the social problems of the nation will solve themselves. 

 Let the charm, the dignity, the wholesomeness of out-door life 

 be realized by the growing generations of today, and the mad 

 rush to the cities will cease of itself. 



There should be schools in the suburbs of our cities, and 

 these should be in session through the entire year, but only 

 half the time should be spent indoors. The summer term in 

 the suburbs should be the longer term, and should be devoted 

 to teaching how to live, how to get a living, how to grow 

 food, and how to cook it; how to make a home, and how to 

 keep it and improve it : how to gain health and strength, and 

 the power to work with hands, as well as heads, and to 

 do a full share of the work of the world. These things 

 are not learned from books ; and more than anything else, the 

 children need to learn them. Once they have learned them, 

 they will solve the tenement problem for themselves. They will 

 be as eager to avoid the slum districts as they would be to fly 

 from the Black Hole of Calcutta ; and they will find a way. 

 The modern cave-dwellers will become cottage dwellers and 

 home owners with park-like gardens. 



There should be a model school in every suburb of every 

 large city, with its vegetable garden, flower garden, tree cul- 

 ture, animal raising and training. It should not be the object 

 to raise poultry, vegetables, grain, fruit, and animals for their 

 own sake, but to have through them and by them all, some boys 

 and girls taught aright, that these boys and girls may know how 

 to take intelligent care of themselves. 



If we wish to strengthen the foundation of our nation, and 

 to preserve it, we must not let it fall into decay. Education 

 through nature'study in the garden out of doors will develop the 

 children who will take care of these problems in the future. 



The inception of school gardens can hardlv be called new 

 in the \\'est. The celebration of Arbor day in the rural schools 

 has been in vogue in many states for a long time. This institu- 

 tion has had in view chiefly, if not exclusively, the schools of 

 rural districts and the small villages, and it contemplates the 

 devoting of a single day in the year to the planting of trees 

 and shrubs. Then came the school gardens, merely for the 

 purpose of showing the pupils how to plant, but the garden was 

 allowed to grow into weeds during the summer vacation. 



