20 GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 



The most discouraging part was that after the vegetables were 

 beginning to ripen, these same boys, so we think, would 

 trample about after dark and pick things. Of course that 

 was too demoralizing. We took turns at teaching them. This 

 first year we could not afford to hire any one. Perhaps a regu- 

 lar teacher could have made them behave." 



That this little tale was set in a minor key is probably due 

 to various causes rather than to any single one. But certainly 

 these excellent townspeople, like a good many of us when 

 we set out to work for others without particularly consulting 

 them, missed the point. Seemingly it had not crossed their 

 minds that the only logical excuse for a vacation garden or 

 any other sort of children's garden might be the development 

 of the children, and that development comes through real 

 activity in contrast to mere manual work or drudgery. 



All this gives wide sweep for discussion. But how it is 

 possible to conduct gardening at all in a school of several hun- 

 dred children may well be considered now. For certainly not 

 all grammar schools, even those in the outlying districts of 

 towns, are so favorably situated as to allow garden space for 

 every one of its grades. Yet in the face of serious obstacles 

 some schools have been able to accomplish this, their success 

 being chiefly due to the fact that the project has won the 

 moral support of the community. 



In this respect one of the most interesting schools in the 

 country x some years ago set apart garden space for all its 

 grades. Each child, from the kindergarten up, tended a plot 

 of his own, progressing in gardening very much as in his 

 other studies. Moreover, a large proportion of the lessons 

 indoors were based upon the lessons outside. All the school 

 years of such a child, therefore, are vibrant with interest in the 

 fields. Think how such an interest would permeate his life. 



1 Whittier School, Hampton, Virginia. 



