AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS 



those interested in agriculture or horticulture or 

 in attempts to benefit social conditions have been 

 most active in establishing them.* It is interest- 

 ing to note how many gardens like those at 

 Yonkers, at Pittsburgh, at Dubuque and, in part, 

 at Cleveland, have developed into social centers. 

 Among educators, friends of the school garden 

 are multiplying rapidly, and increasing numbers 

 believe **that instruction such as is given in the 

 school garden is of the right kind. It arouses 

 interest in real things; it develops judgment; 

 it brings the child in contact with his envi- 

 ronment, and above all, it gives that opportunity 

 for placing responsibility on the child without 

 which character is not developed. The activi- 

 ties of school garden work are natural to the child 

 and give much needed respite from school-room 

 restraint. . . . The child's mind gets growth 

 out of them because it can understand them. 

 Not only does the school garden serve to edu- 

 cate and train, but it supplies a kind of knowledge 



* The National Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild encourages school 

 gardens and through its local branches assists in starting them. 



The International School Farm League seeks to develop the 

 school garden in connection with schools, parks, institutions and day 

 camps, as an educational, recreational, sociological, and remedial 

 agency. 



The Gardening Association of America, organized October, iqoq, 

 in Buffalo, gives equal emphasis to vacant lot and school gardening 

 and will encourage both because of their tendency to benefit the 

 poor, to show the power of self-help, to further agricultural interests, 

 to lessen the evil influences of city life and to cultivate a love of 

 growing plants. 



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