20 
GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
The most discouraging part was that after the vegetables were 
beginning to ripen, these same boys, so we think, would 
trample about after dark and pick things. Of course that 
was too demoralizing. We took turns at teaching them. This 
first year we could not afford to hire any one. Perhaps a regu- 
lar teacher could have made them behave.” 
That this little tale was set in a minor key is probably due 
to various causes rather than to any single one. But certainly 
these excellent townspeople, like a good many of us when 
we set out to work for others without particularly consulting 
them, missed the point. Seemingly it had not crossed their 
minds that the only logical excuse for a vacation garden or 
any other sort of children’s garden might be the development 
of the children, and that development comes through real 
activity in contrast to mere manual work or drudgery. 
All this gives wide sweep for discussion. But how it is 
possible to conduct gardening at all in a school of several hun- 
dred children may well be considered now. For certainly not 
all grammar schools, even those in the outlying districts of 
towns, are so favorably situated as to allow garden space for 
every one of its grades. Yet in the face of serious obstacles 
some schools have been able to accomplish this, their success 
being chiefly due to the fact that the project has won the 
moral support of the community. 
In this respect one of the most interesting schools in the 
country ^ some years ago set apart garden space for all its 
grades. Each child, from the kindergarten up, tended a plot 
of his own, progressing in gardening very much as in his 
other studies. Moreover, a large proportion of the lessons 
indoors were based upon the lessons outside. All the school 
years of such a child, therefore, are vibrant with interest in the 
fields. Think how such an interest would permeate his life. 
1 Whittier School, Hampton, Virginia. 
