THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN 



iting classes, and gives to a number of crippled 

 children brought there each week, some happy 

 hours working over their little farms, or superin- 

 tending such work when it must be done by stronger 

 arms. The School Farm, with its flowers, its regu- 

 lar lines of vegetables, its grains and observation 

 plots, presents an almost park-like appearance to 

 the neighborhood. 



The earlier work of Philadelphia with its con- 

 stantly increasing number of school gardens, the 

 work in Washington, D. C, and the successful 

 Fairview Garden School of Yonkers, New York, 

 should be mentioned among the pioneers. 



Philadelphia stands out today as the city whose 

 board of education most fully recognizes, from 

 the pedagogical and educational standpoint, the 

 value of the school garden. It appoints a su- 

 pervisor of school gardens (Miss Stella Nathan) ; 

 incorporates the work into its school system in cer- 

 tain grades, and maintains the gardens throughout 

 the growing season. The teaching in the gardens, 

 therefore, follows a prescribed course, yet loses 

 none of its joyous, vital interest to the children. 

 This instruction is correlated in the school room 

 work "from the kindergarten to the senior class 

 of the normal school." Philadelphia now has 

 8 school gardens, accommodating from 150 to 

 200 children each, 22 kindergarten and 1764 

 home gardens. It is intended in the coming 

 year that these last shall be regularly supervised 

 by one of the staff of gardening instructors in the 



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