AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS 



it as a new thing requiring it to prove its educa- 

 tional and social worth. Frequently they give it 

 a meagre support, recognizing it perhaps by the 

 appointment of a nature study teacher as a super- 

 visor of school gardens, but granting little or no 

 money toward either the maintenance of the garden 

 or a reasonable salary to cover the summer's work 

 of supervision. Sometimes this lack of support is 

 due to a division of opinion among the school com- 

 missioners or among members of the boards of 

 estimate. It may meet the opposition of the older 

 and more conservative principals of the city, or of 

 a ward politician who sees no sense in it and is 

 afraid that the voters will look upon it as a new 

 fad or a new excuse for increasing taxes. 



Generally, the school garden idea has captured 

 the educational leaders in our country, made 

 friends for itself among the most progressive of 

 our teachers, old and new, and won the children 

 wherever it has been tried. One drawback to its 

 rapid growth is that there is still confusion be- 

 cause of the stress that has been laid sometimes 

 upon theoretical views; or upon its peculiar fitness 

 to meet the special needs of particular places. 

 These lesser questions can be safely left to settle 

 themselves, for a school garden is like a bank in 

 that it may be drawn upon for values of different 

 kinds to meet different needs, as one may require 

 money in the form of gold or silver, check or draft. 

 In a school garden the educational, economic, 

 aesthetic, utilitarian, or sociological value may be 



34 



