WHAT MAKES A SCHOOL GARDEN WORTH WHILE 23 



cannot be splendidly met and mastered by them. They have 

 satisfied themselves that the very puzzles that elude the com- 

 prehension of the grown-up, and vex his soul, if honestly put 

 to the children are courageously attacked and by some magic 

 skill solved by them. To borrow a bit of philosophy, Children 

 rush in and win where grown-ups fear to tread. 



There is not the least doubt that a surprise is in store for 

 those grown-ups who will in all sincerity try the experiment 

 of consulting a band of children upon some matter that deeply 

 concerns them. Indeed, why not consult them if we are train- 

 ing them for democracy ? An answer to those who doubted the 

 success of democracy was given awhile ago by Jane Addams. 

 It was simply this, that the cure for the evils of democracy was 

 more democracy. Why not try, then, as a cure for incon- 

 sequence and irresponsibility on the part of young people, 

 about which there is so much complaint, more and more 

 responsibility ? 



Of course the laying of responsibility upon children must 

 not be undertaken lightly. To the teacher and the parent, 

 how much and what responsibility it is best to give over seems 

 destined to remain an unknown quantity. Perhaps a child's 

 hunger for responsibility is like the hunger of a four-footed 

 creature for food, — a reasonably safe- indication of the de- 

 mands of his system. If so, there needs to be deliberately 

 offered him a chance to take, quite voluntarily, some respon- 

 sibility. Then, by an open-eyed and open-minded teacher, 

 the experiment can be watched. No studies of children are 

 more stimulating for the teacher than these ; and no sur- 

 roundings, as we have seen, are likely to be more favorable 

 than a garden. 



Society is never as sirhple as it looks, either in or out of 

 school. A number of distinct types of child personality reveal 

 themselves to a master who " lets go " in this way, for a little, 



