14 GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 



all cooperative work. What this particular situation needed, 

 and needed sorely of course, was a wise word of advice slipped 

 in by the right grown person at just the right moment to 

 reenforce the children's own effort. If only this had been 

 forthcoming, the tale might well deserve to go on record as 

 a splendid example of how a garden may educate children 

 through utilizing spontaneous desires, and, incidentally, how 

 it may give trend to their life interests. 



But imperfect as this experiment was, in so far as these 

 youngsters had united in working out plans of their own they 

 were getting positive benefit ; they were, besides, reading the 

 romance of growing things, and they were being disciplined 

 in self-mastery and initiative, the possession of which deter- 

 mines whether a person is effective in life or not. 



These glimpses of children's doings bring into clearer view 

 many activities that are going on all around us every day. 

 If the three most significant of these activities were to be 

 pointed out, one would be the training of producers, another 

 the awakening of interest in nature's laws, and the third — 

 not the least in importance — the joyous companionship 

 shown in planning and in working out plans. Each of these 

 activities has gone on, it must be remembered, quite outside 

 the realm of a formal school or a certificated teacher. We 

 become possessed by the thought of what a garden might 

 accomplish in a school dealing frankly with living issues 

 and guided by teachers willing to lend themselves to its 

 rare possibilities. 



