366 Garden Work 
not then he asked to do the unpractical things he is sometimes advised to 
try. 
In the school gardens the foundation for such a happy result might 
be laid: the dignity of labour should always be upheld. The pupils should 
be taught not to be afraid to dirty their hands or their boots, the teacher 
himself setting the example; but they should always be taught to 
clean both hands and boots thoroughly when work is finished in the 
garden. If there is any broken skin, cuts, or bruises on the hands the 
children should not be allowed to work with them in the soil in case of 
germs entering the wounds. 
The writer has had experience of pupils, not only in the school gardens, 
but amongst students of mature years, who thought it most humiliating to 
have to perform some of the menial operations in the gardens; but, need- 
less to say, their objections met with little sympathy, and after some 
scruples were overcome the dreaded menial work was performed, which, to 
the astonishment of the students, raised them in the estimation of their 
fellows instead of lowering them. And so it should always be. There is a 
dignity in honest labour which should always be upheld. 
II.— THE GARDENING CLASS 
This class, when rightly conducted, may easily be made the most 
interesting in the school. The teacher has great opportunities, which, if 
thoroughly understood and properly utilized, may have far-reaching effects 
on the lives of his pupils. He has the whole of Nature at his command, 
and, if rightly interpreted to the children, may awaken in them a love of 
Nature which is always supremely interesting and of the highest educa- 
tional value. Hence the teacher of the gardening class must always be a 
close student of Nature. 
No amount of training will ever make a man a successful teacher of 
gardening unless he has the inherent qualities for such work within him. In 
other words, a teacher of gardening is born, not made. A man may go to 
a textbook and prepare a lesson on gardening, or he may even have had a 
thorough practical and scientific training in the art of gardening, but if he 
has not the art of teaching this subject in a bright and interesting manner, 
the interest in the garden will flag, the boys or girls will go through their 
work in a mechanical way, and it will gradually sink to the level of mere 
drudgery, when the educational value of it will be entirely lost. The 
successful teacher of gardening must have enthusiasm for the work, he 
