May 1907.] 



323 



Miscellaneous. 



part of the director. I am firmly convinced after several years' experience thatjthe 

 garden movement, in its most sane aspects, is the bestmetbod of nature study that 

 has yet appeared. It should not be taken up in a headlong manner as the result of a 

 bit of temporary enthusiasm which has seized some one who has not counted the 

 cost in labour, thought, and planning necessary to reach an ultimate goal which may 

 be of sufficient worth to pay for the undertaking. 



I have now, in mind, a city which of all cities in the state would be greatly 

 improved by the children's garden idea ; but in which a hastily conceived and poorly 

 completed attempt at school gardening brought about failure, with the natural 

 result that the whole idea has been sadly discounted and put in the background for 

 many years. Do not injure the cause by starting with only surface knowledge 

 and enthusiasm. Plan wisely and try to realize the highest aim of the 

 movement. 



This leads me to criticise some of the aims and purposes set forth in the 

 papers this morning. Some of these aims and purposes have been devised to 

 controvert the claims and criticism of the unthinking who look upon the work as a 

 " fad," which to the public is a horrible but indefinite something. I want to urge one 

 and all not to allow children's gardening in any of its forms to be taken up in such a 

 way as to be looked upon as a " fad." Make it a success and the result will make the 

 doubtful critic sorry that he had not deeper insight into the movement before he 

 passed his hasty judgment. 



It is not necessary to go very far afield to find an excuse for the garden idea 

 for children. I fear that a tendency has been too often shown to make the move 

 ment too pedagogical ; too cut and dried. Do not kill the enthusiasm of the young 

 gardener by making him feel that his garden work is for the sake of helping his 

 arithmetic, his language, or his nature study. It is well to correlate, but do it 

 indirectly or it will, I fear, react unfavourably if we continually try to defend the 

 school garden by illustrating how it may be used for the sake of numbers, language, 

 science, etc. If the idea of childern's gardens has not sufficient merit and value to 

 stand upon its own feet, it had better fall before it climbs any higher. 



I like to put the matter the other way, and this, perhaps, is what our friends 

 mean, i.e., to correlate the subjects of science, language, and numbers with garden- 

 ing in such a way that these subjects may serve as aids to gardening and be used as 

 means or instruments for the sake of the more real thing, the garden. It is not 

 necessary to apologize for the children's garden by showing how the idea may be 

 correlated with all the rest of the curriculum. As I have before said, I fear that 

 any such cut and dried treatment nny take away the very naturalness and the life 

 of the movement, and put out of sight the real kernel and highest purpose of the 

 garden idea. 



Another claim is often made that through the gardening a business instinct 

 is developed. Examples of bright boys selling products, cornering the market, 

 getting control of the other boys' crops, etc., are set forth as results. It is not 

 denied that thrift may be developed, but it is not necessary to use the school or home 

 garden to teach the bright Yankee boy how to do a commercial trick. There is 

 enough of this spirit in the air to make it sufficiently contagious. 



The real aim, it seems to me, is to create a love for the beautiful plant and 

 shrub and to show the boy how to make a small plot of earth or yard serve as an 

 economic aid to the home, not only in supplying vegetables but also flowers and 

 beautiful surroundings, Children's gardens are not for the sake of the school or the 

 subjects in the curriculum, but for the more important institution, the home, and 

 for the sake of the children themselves. We aim to develop patriotic citizens, but 



