224 



[March 1908. 



M3SCELLANEOUS. 



SCHOOL GARDEN WORK AND THE 

 NORMAL SCHOOL. 



By W. A. Baldwin, 

 Principal. State Normal School, 

 Hyannis, Mass. 

 In the brief time at my disposal I 

 cannot do better than to analyze the 

 forces which have driven the Hyannis 

 Normal School to take up the school 

 gaixlen work. 1 venture to consider this 

 account as worthy of presentation, be- 

 cause I believe that it is typical of what 

 is happening or must soon happen to 

 every progressive normal school. Modern 

 pedagogy demands that there must be a 

 basis in sense and perception along every 

 line. We are, therefore, driven to one of 

 two courses. First, let the child alone 

 to get experiences as may come to him. 

 Second, select or help him to select such 

 typical experiences as would seem to 

 furnish him with the needed basal ex- 

 periences. We used to leave the matter 

 to chance, and we inclined even to dis- 

 regard the valuable experience gained 

 by the child in his haphazard way. 

 With the advance in science it has be- 

 come impossible to leave the whole 

 matter to Providence, and we have been 

 inclined to go as far the other way, 

 leaving nothing to individual initiative. 

 The result has been such work as the 

 regulation sloyd manual training. In 

 slavish imitation of others we have put 

 sloyd into our Training School. It was 

 not producing the desired results, and we 

 began to consider the matter. The 

 problem as it presented itself to us was 

 something like this. What form or forms 

 of manual training are best adapted to 

 produce the desired results? We were 

 then driven to consider more carefully 

 than ever before just what results we 

 were aiming to secure. This has proved 

 for us a fruitful question which is not yet 

 fully answered. We soon became con- 

 vinced, however, that such work should 

 process the following characteristics : — 



1. It should grow out of the environ- 

 ment of the child. 



2. It should come as a response to 

 something from within the normal child. 



3. It should be typical of important 

 World activities. 



4. It should furnish ample opportune 

 itiea for the child to act himself out in 

 connection with typical activities and 

 relations to things and to people* The 

 first three are to such an audience as we 

 have to-day obvious. The last is less 

 obvious but vastly important. Let us 

 consider it lor a moment. Unless a child 



is allowed to act himself out there is no 

 opportunity to discover his weakness, 

 and to help him to grow strong. If he 

 acts himself out with things which are not 

 typical there is no especial gain. If the 

 relations are artificial and unusual false 

 associations are formed, false standards 

 are established, Avrong habits and wrong 

 attitude toward life are fostered. These 

 results have troubled the thoughtfnl 

 observer in connection with regulation 

 manual training in wood and iron, and 

 even in regulation cooking courses, when 

 not connected with home needs, and 

 sewing, when based upon a system of 

 models. Becoming dissatisfied with the 

 regulation manual training we looked 

 about for something better. We found 

 several forms which pleased us and which 

 we are using, but none which, on the 

 whole, proved as satisfactory as has 

 school gardening. It furnishes for us all 

 of the requisites given above. It gives 

 some organic untiy to our nature study. 

 It f urhisb.es one centre for correlation of 

 our so-called regular school work. It 

 helps on the physical side by getting the 

 children and teachers out-of-doors a part 

 of the day. It helps to establish proper 

 relations between the school and the 

 home and the world. It is true that 

 some city noi*mal schools are, by the 

 artificial conditions with which they 

 and their graduates have to con- 

 tend, deprived of many of these privi- 

 leges, but the majority of the graduates 

 of our normal schools may and should 

 use some form of school garden work, 

 in connection with their school work. 

 I have already said and written so 

 much regarding the use of the school 

 garden as a basis for other school work 

 and social work that I will only say here 

 that any one who is interested enough 

 to write for a catalogue may receive 

 some account of our work along that 

 line. It seems wise to us to put this 

 work in three times during our nine 

 years of primary and grammar schools. 

 The reasons I shall be glad to state if 

 anyone is interested to have them. Until 

 last year we had not given school garden 

 work to our normal students. They 

 had observed the work of the children, 

 and, in some cases, had gained experi- 

 ence in teaching the subject during 

 their practice term, but the majority 

 went out without any adequate ex* 

 perience which would enable them to 

 do the work in the schools where 

 they were to teach. Gradually it dawned 

 upon us that we were doing for our 

 normal students just what we were criti* 

 cieing others for doing with the.childrcn, 



