CHAPTER III 
SITUATION AND SOIL 
In the hands of man there are no unfertile soils. — P. Kropotkin 
There has lately been a great awakening in regard to cer- 
tain needs of children. This is shown by the suggestion that 
all the schools of a big city should be transferred to the sub- 
urbs. Think what it would mean if the hundreds of children 
now doubled over desks in dingy buildings could every day 
be conveyed to regions of sunny space, playgrounds, and 
gardens ; yet so sharply does this proposition conflict with 
the ancient notion of a bookish education that it was at 
first taken as a joke. Before long it began to be seriously 
discussed. The idea is gaining ground, until now it may be 
considered as an actual promise for the future. There is in 
sight, too, a happy day when the garden will be called upon 
to take its place in the scheme of education and to fulfill its 
social and scientific possibilities. 
These are certainly in no danger of being exaggerated. 
One educational leader^ does not hesitate to use these words : 
" The most workable living laboratory of any dimensions is 
the school garden. . . . The time is coming when such a 
laboratory will be as much a part of a good school equip- 
ment as blackboards, books, and charts are now.” With such 
a prophecy ringing in our ears, we cannot simply fold our 
hands and wait. There is, indeed, all the more pressing 
need for small beginnings, for it is these that convince a 
1 Charles W. Eliot. 
45 
