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School  Gardens. 
Am.  Jour.  Ptaarm. 
May,  1908. 
To  teach  the  elements  of  the  industry  on  which  life  principally 
depends — agriculture — and  thus  promote  distribution  of  population 
in  rural  districts,  instead  of  continued  concentration  in  cities. 
How  Gardens  are  Educational. — To  be  of  educational  value,  it  is 
not  enough  to  provide  gardens  with  tools  and  a  gardener.  The 
gardener  or  laborer  is  needed  only  as  a  janitor,  and  for  work  that  is 
too  heavy  for  children. 
Why  Teachers  are  Needed. — For  any  educational  results  to  be 
accomplished,  the  constant  direction  of  trained  teachers  is  neces- 
sary, because  of  their  knowledge  of  children  and  of  methods  of 
teaching.    Discipline  and  nature  talks  are  the  work  of  teachers. 
The  Work  of  the  Teachers. — To  teach  children  to  learn  by  observa- 
tion, and  to  give  them  practical  training  by  the  eye  and  the  hand. 
To  teach  children  to  apply  what  they  learn  from  books,  as  to 
nature  study,  mensuration,  and  other  subjects,  without  the  strain  of 
additional  indoor  work. 
To  influence  character  by  appeal  to  their  love  of  nature. 
To  prepare  children  for  citizenship  by  teaching,  practically,  the 
care  of  private  and  public  property. 
To  mold  character  by  demanding  independence,  each  child  being 
dependent  upon  himself  in  a  garden  for  the  results  of  his  labor. 
To  impress  practically  and  theoretically  the  law  of  sequence,  one 
event  proceeding  from  another  as  its  direct  consequence. 
To  educate  the  emotions,  by  teaching  care  and  protection  of 
tender,  growing  things. 
A  gardener,  no  matter  how  excellent,  will  not  be  as  competent  as 
an  experienced  teacher  to  carry  out  these  educational  purposes  of 
school  gardens. 
A  school  garden  usually  measures  about  one  acre,  and  is  subdi- 
vided into  small  individual  plots,  larger  or  class  plots,  a  centre  and 
border,  for  flowers.  The  yield  from  the  small  plots  belongs  to  the 
children  who  cultivate  them,  that  from  the  class  plot  belongs  to  the 
garden.  The  beautiful  flowers  are  taken  to  the  pupils'  homes  or 
made  into  bouquets  and  sent  to  the  hospitals  for  the  sick. 
One  supervisor,  nine  principal  and  ten  assistant  teachers,  with  six 
gardeners,  were  employed.  The  total  cost  to  the  city,  for  the  sea- 
son,  in  material  and  salaries,  was  $  I 1,035. 
Accurate  records  are  kept,  including  the  amount  of  produce  per 
child,  the  attendance  and  effects  of  the  work  upon  the  pupils'  phys- 
