CHAPTER I 
WHAT MAKES A SCHOOL GARDEN WORTH WHILE 
For Weakness in freedom grows stronger than Strength with a chain. 
Sidney Lanier 
A garden carried on in a home where desires and delights 
are companions, not foes, seems the most natural thing in the 
world. This is because the knowledge that springs from the 
joy of such gardening is in its very essence real. But it re- 
quires a good stretch of the imagination to set this cherished 
pursuit fittingly in a sharply defined course of study. To tell 
the truth, it has never been taken quite seriously; and while 
excellent starts have been made and many have entered for 
the race, nobody has as yet reached the goal. This goal in 
children’s gardening is the secret of making it yield to a 
school program its entire and unique contribution. 
Nobody will, of course, deny that the garden has been 
cordially welcomed as a pleasant accompaniment to various 
educational projects. It offers, for instance, a kind of supple- 
mentary manual training, besides a large and varied supply of 
material for nature study. It is also, as we know, a powerful 
magnet to attract children from the street. Notwithstanding 
these recommendations, it has not, so far, on its own account 
rendered a sufficiently distinct service to save it from the 
odium of being classed with those last straws which a patient 
curriculum is obliged to bear. The simple fact that the sacred 
hours of schooltime are dealt out to gardening so grudgingly, 
if at all, shows that it is still a sort of annex to the school 
instead of an integral part of it. 
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