Feb. 1908. j 



157 



Miscellaneous. 



the subjects for our special consider- 

 ation this year. We have grown both 

 these plants in the school garden at least 

 two years in succession, and so are 

 familiar with their habits, etc. 



Although, however, these subjects are 

 on the list for this years work, we shall 

 not take them "if, by any unforeseen 

 chance, the sowings of this year in our 

 garden fail us. 



We follow Nature, and wait until she 

 is ready to give us of her bounty to try 

 to learn something of her marvellous 

 ways and workings. 



Hence, whilst it is well and possible to 

 have a general prospective plan of work 

 for the whole 5*ear, it is scarcely advis- 

 able to attempt to make any detailed 

 plans for all the subjects which are to 

 be considered during the course of the 

 year too long ahead before many of the 

 things have, perhaps, even been planted. 

 The growing plants, etc., often suggest 

 details for a coming specific plan. 



Nature will not be controlled by any 

 iron reckonings. We have, therefore, 

 no day and hour specially reserved for 

 gardening. On our time-table is the 

 following note : " Groups of children 

 for work in the garden with the head, 

 or some other, teacher at least forty- 

 five minutes a week, according to 

 weather, and the needs of the garden.'' 



The words "at least" suggest that 

 much more time is given to the work on 

 occasions, and this is the case. At some 

 seasons the little gardeners may be out 

 a whole afternoon at a time. Work may 

 be done in the garden any morning 

 during the time then allotted to the 

 care of natural objects, during either of 

 the two weekly Nature lessous, and any 

 time in the afternoon when the head 

 mistress or a senior pupil-teacher is not 

 engaged in any special work which might 

 prevent either of them from being able 

 to free the class-teacher for the work, 

 or from taking it themselves. This 

 leads to a consideration of the question 

 of the number of children which may be 

 taken for gardening at a time by one 

 teacher, and if only a small number, how 

 the other clnldren of the class are occu- 

 pied the while. 



It is impossible for one teacher to take 

 gardening (if the children are really to 

 do the work, and be interested in it) 

 with fifty or sixty children. The mo- 

 ment that is attempted the work is 

 over-organised, and its value lost in drill. 

 No one teacher can take gardening with 

 more than eight or ten children at a 

 time, except, perhaps, for such oper- 

 ations as weeding and watering. Plants 

 even of the same family set on the same 

 day and at the same hour do not always 

 21 



come up at the same time or in the same 

 way. How much less so. therefore, 

 plants" pf different kinds ! Probably no 

 two little beds require the same treat- 

 ment at a given time. It is hardly fair, 

 therefore, to expect that any teacher 

 should be able to direct such a multipli- 

 city of operations as would be inevitable 

 with a large number of children working 

 at one time on their gardens, with happy 

 results. 



Our children are consequently taken in 

 small groups for work in the garden. 

 The remainder of the class go on with 

 the work specified on the time-table 

 under the care of whatever teacher can 

 be free for the time being. No obser- 

 vations or sketches are made on paper 

 by the children during the time they 

 are out for the purpose of gardening. 

 Such work is done afterwards, in or out 

 of doors, as may seem best. The child- 

 ren often go out alone to draw from 

 Nature in their school garden. 



School gardening means without doubt 

 a certain amount of trouble and plan- 

 ning on the part of the teacher. She 

 needs to be a most careful and skilful 

 organiser, and a lover of Nature, in whose 



" Hundred-gated Thebes every chamber is a 

 door, 



A door fco something grander, — loftier walls and 

 vaster floor/' 



The value of such work as gardening 

 to the children physically, intellectually, 

 and morally, more than compensates for 

 all the trouble and time the teacher has 

 to expend upon it. Nothing is more 

 delightful than to witness the joy of the 

 children in the work, and their ever- 

 increasing care and solicitude, not only 

 for their own little school-gardens, their 

 home and other gardens, but also for the 

 creatures which they come across in 

 them. The effect of this new attitude 

 towards living and growing things shows 

 itself further in the way in which the 

 children behave towards each other. 

 They unconsciously become gentler and 

 more sympathetic in their manner, and 

 rough play no longer appeals to them. 

 This change must tell in the larger com- 

 munity of society and materially aid in 

 doing away with those impulses which 

 find their bent in hooliganism. 



It is most gratifying to know how 

 rarely any damage is ever done to the 

 gaideu, although it is situated in a play- 

 ground used daily by upwards of seven 

 hundred children, and is wholly unpro- 

 tected from intruders. An occasional 

 footprint on a bed or a broken flower is 

 nearly always to be traced to a new 

 child, or to quite an outsider, who has 

 never before been encouraged to love 

 and protect some of the wonderful 



