WHAT MAKES A SCHOOL GARDEN WORTH WHILE 23 
cannot be splendidly met and mastered by them. They have 
satisfied themselves that the very puzzles that elude the com- 
prehension of the grown-up, and vex his soul, if honestly put 
to the children are courageously attacked and by some magic 
skill solved by them. To borrow a bit of philosophy. Children 
rush in and win where grown-ups fear to tread. 
There is not the least doubt that a surprise is in store for 
those grown-ups who will in all sincerity try the experiment 
of consulting a band of children upon some matter that deeply 
concerns them. Indeed, why not consult them if we are train- 
ing them for democracy ? An answer to those who doubted the 
success of democracy was given awhile ago by Jane Addams. 
It was simply this, that the cure for the evils of democracy was 
more democracy. Why not try, then, as a cure for incon- 
sequence and irresponsibility on the part of young people, 
about which there is so much complaint, more and more 
responsibility ? 
Of course the laying of responsibility upon children must 
not be undertaken lightly. To the teacher and the parent, 
how much and what responsibility it is best to give over seems 
destined to remain an unknown quantity. Perhaps a child’s 
hunger for responsibility is like the hunger of a four-footed 
creature for food, — a reasonably safe indication of the de- 
mands of his system. If so, there needs to be deliberately 
offered him a chance to take, quite voluntarily, some respon- 
sibility. Then, by an open-eyed and open-minded teacher, 
the experiment can be watched. No studies of children are 
more stimulating for the teacher than these ; and no sur- 
roundings, as we have seen, are likely to be more favorable 
than a garden. 
Society is never as simple as it looks, either in or out of 
school. A number of distinct types of child personality reveal 
themselves to a master who " lets go ” in this way, for a little. 
