264 Fifth Conference 



with the observation of the aspects of nature, with the 

 weather, with the cottage garden, and with any pur- 

 suit which affects the decoration and the cheerfulness 

 of the dweUing and the variety of outdoor Hfe. By 

 the expansion of the teacher's duties in these direc- 

 tions he awakens in parents a new interest in the 

 work of the school, a fresh sense of the value of 

 education as a discipline in character and a prepara- 

 tion for life. The father or mother, to whom the 

 home lessons of a scholar in arithmetic or geography 

 would be uninteresting because unintelligible, could 

 not fail to be pleased with the efforts of a child to 

 arrange and classify leaves or grasses, to illustrate his 

 note-books with drawings of birds or flowers, or other- 

 wise to concern himself about the world outside of 

 the school-room, — a world in which the child and the 

 parent have a common share, and may soon learn to 

 feel a common interest. The American institution of 

 "Arbor day", on which once a year a tree is planted 

 in the school garden, and all the children are invited 

 to contribute something to add to the prettiness and 

 dignity of the school grounds and premises, well 

 deserves study and imitation in many of our country 

 schools. 



Herein lies the great value of some of the manifold 

 pursuits of boyhood and girlhood which are so abun- 

 dantly and happily illustrated in this exhibition. They 

 all make a direct appeal to the sympathies even of 

 uninstructed parents, and they all help to make the 

 home in which the child dwells a more interesting 

 place for all who live with him. I look upon the 

 present exhibition as a remarkable and hopeful symp- 

 tom of the wider views of duty which are begin- 



