i6o 
GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
all about them, these young people are constantly kept "sup- 
posing.” There are, fortunately, on the other hand, schools 
that interweave their routine with children’s real pursuits, so 
that it is hard to tell where school leaves off and a child’s 
free life begins. 
Roughly speaking, school exercises may be said to fall into 
two classes : one made up of the tasks which spring from 
real issues, the other consisting of the tasks set for the ex- 
press purpose of acquiring tools, — for tools are useful in the 
execution of these real activities. Spelling, for instance, and 
handwriting should be classed among tools (both of which 
accomplishments the man of affairs passes over to his type- 
writer), besides a large share of the mechanical side of arith- 
metic. Tools are of course necessary; on occasion a tool 
may rise to the highest importance. The desire to possess 
a specific tool and the price one is willing to pay for it are 
conditioned upon the seriousness of the piece of work whose 
success is at stake ; in other words, the workman prizes his 
tool and learns to wield it effectively according to the value 
which he sets upon the work. 
Is it assuming too much to believe that there are matters 
pertaining to education which vibrate with permanent interest 
independent of clocks and bells ? Surely not. Skill on the 
part of the educator lies in not letting slip any opportunity to 
utilize a single one of these permanent interests. He is be- 
coming every day more keenly alive to such opportunities. 
That this is everywhere increasingly true is indicated by so 
obvious a sign as the subjects chosen in these days by stu- 
dents for their themes. Time was when "How I spent my 
Vacation” stood nearly alone in a string of arid titles like 
" The Pleasures of Hope ” or that classic subject " Duty per- 
formed is a Rainbow in the Soul”; but the list of school 
themes nowadays reads something as follows: "How our 
