216 massachusetts horticultural society. 



School Garden Notes. 



BY FRANK M. MARSH, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, FAIRHAVEN, MASS. 



After listening with you to the many interesting phases of the work 

 with children's gardens which have been presented by the speakers this 

 morning, I shall not attempt to add anything new, but I am constrained 

 to ask you, for a moment, by way of review, to consider one or two points 

 that maj^ be open to discussion. First: children's gardens should not 

 be begun without careful plans and preparation on the part of the director. 

 I am firmly convinced after several years' experience that the garden 

 movement, in its most sane aspects, is the best method of nature study 

 that has yet appeared. It should not be taken up in a headlong manner 

 as the result of a bit of temporary enthusiasm which has seized some one 

 who has not counted the cost in labor, thought, and planning necessary 

 to reach an ultimate goal which may be of sufficient worth to pay for the 

 undertaking. 



I have, now, in mind a city which of all cities in the state would be 

 greatly improved by the children's garden idea; but in which a hastily 

 conceived and poorly completed attempt at school gardening brought 

 about failure, with the natural result that the whole idea has been sadly 

 discounted and put in the background for many years. Do not injure 

 the cause by starting with only surface knowledge and enthusiasm. Plan 

 wisely and tiy to realize the highest aim of the movement. 



This leads me to criticise some of the aims and purposes set forth in 

 the papers this morning. Some of these aims and purposes have been 

 devised to controvert the claims and criticism of the unthinking who 

 look upon the work as a "fad" which to the public is a horrible but in- 

 definite something. I want to urge one and all not to allow children's 

 gardening in any of its foi-ms to be taken up in such a way as to be looked 

 upon as a "fad". Make it a success and the result will make the doubtful 

 critic sorry that he had not deeper insight into the movement before he 

 passed his hasty judgment. 



It is not necessaiy to go very far afield to find an excuse for the garden 

 idea for children. I fear that a tendency has been too often shown to 

 make the movement too pedagogical; too cut and dried. Do not kill the 

 enthusiasm of the young gardener by making him feel that his garden 

 work is for the sake of helping his arithmetic, his language, or his nature 

 study. It is well to correlate, but do it indirectly or it will, I fear, react 

 unfavorably if we continually try to defend the school garden by illustrating 

 how it may be used for the sake of numbers, language, science, etc. If 

 the idea of children's gardens has not sufficient merit and value to stand 

 upon its own feet it had better fall before it climbs any higher. 



