children's garden conference. 217 



I like to put the matter the other way, and this, perhaps, is what our 

 friends mean, i. e., to correlate the subjects of science, language, and 

 numbers with gardening in such a way that these subjects may serve as 

 aids to gardening and be used as means or instruments for the sake of the 

 more real thing, the garden. It is not necessary to apologize for the 

 children's garden by showing how the idea may be correlated with all the 

 rest of the curriculum. As I have before said, I fear that any such cut 

 and dried treatment may take awaj^ the very naturalness and life of the 

 movement and put out of sight the real kernel and highest purpose of 

 the garden idea. 



Another claim is often made that through the gardening a business 

 instinct is developed. Examples of bright boys selling products, cornering 

 the market, getting control of the other boys' crops, etc., are set forth, 

 as results. It is not denied that thrift may be developed, but it is not 

 necessary to use the school or home garden to teach the bright Yankee 

 boy how to do a commercial trick. There is enough of this spirit in the 

 air to make it sufficiently contagious. 



The real aim, it seems to me, is to create a love for the beautiful plant 

 and shrub and to show the boy how to make a small plot of earth or yard 

 serve as an economic aid to the home not only in supplying vegetables 

 but also flowers and beautiful surroundings. Children's gardens are not 

 for the sake of the school or the subjects in the curriculum, but for the 

 more important institution, the home, and for the sake of the children 

 themselves. We aim to develop patriotic citizens, but if a man loves his 

 home it is not difficult to arouse his patriot spirit in time of war. It is- 

 a higher type of patriotism which makes a boy love his home enough to 

 have a desire to make it beautiful and wholesome within and without. 

 Teach a boy or girl how to make a back yard beautiful and fruitful, how- 

 to make and keep a fresh and even lawn with its boundary of shrubbeiy, 

 and you will have aroused a new interest in the home and with it a cor- 

 responding love therefor. 



A community made up of such individuals and such homes will be 

 w'holesome and beautiful. The character of any place depends so much 

 upon its homes that any movement that tends toward their improvement 

 W'ill be worth the cost. 



My word of warning, then, is to be certain that children's gardens are 

 never introdviced until sufficient preparation is made to assure permanent 

 success. Do not make the idea too pedagogical thus diverting attention 

 and interest from the real and living aim which it seems to me is to interest 

 the child in the possibilities and beauties of nature through a knowledge 

 of vegetable and plant life; and, finally, utilizing this interest in beauti- 

 fying the home and its surroundings. 



These experiences will not only react upon the character of the town 

 but also upon the life and character of the individual boy and girl. 



