CHAPTER XXII 

 CORRELATION WITH OTHER SCHOOL WORK 



An objection to school and home gardening by young 

 people is made on the ground that other lines of school work 

 occupy the whole time. Teachers and parents too frequently 

 decide that older lines of school work must be maintained _ 

 and that gardening can have no place in the school program, 

 and the time of young people cannot be devoted to such work 

 when there are other " lessons " to learn. Teachers, school 

 boards and committees that have successfully carried on gar- 

 dening in connection with other lines of school work are ready 

 to answer these objections by describing how well the garden- 

 ing helps the other lines of work. Numerous examples of this 

 are found wherever trials have been made. 



Effect of Interest. — Any teacher who has planned the 

 gardening well and put the pupils to work will testify to the 

 interest taken by a large majority of the members of the school 

 (Fig. 157) . The interest aroused is enough to make the other 

 lines of school work much easier than before. The value of 

 any school work depends not so much upon the subject taught 

 as upon the interest taken in the subject. Teachers are 

 familiar with the loss of time and energy in trying to train 

 pupils who seem dull in certain subjects. The subjects dis- 

 liked by such pupils should be correlated with the garden 

 work. The interest in gardening will lead to better work 

 in the subjects formerly disliked. The use of interesting sub- 

 jects will strengthen the weaker parts of the daily program 

 through correlation. 



Getting Started. — (1) Window gardening offers one of 

 the best means of beginning this new work. (2) Pupils who 

 show the greatest advance in other lines of school work and 

 are " ahead of the class " may be allowed to start experiments 

 outlined in this book and in farmers' bulletins. (3) Out-door 



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