Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-05-12
the KITCHEN GARDEN.

The man who made an essential in
gredient of hls recipe for successful
hotel that 1T must not be called no.
tel, but "house," would doubtless un
derstand why II is that q school Is SC
much more attractive when 1t il called
a garden - There is, after all, n
good deal in name, and half the
charm OF the kindergarten would be
gone II IL were n mere school.
| A school is the grand objective point
TO which the whining school boy, with
shining morning face, creeps unwill-
ingly; it is something to be hated and
run away from. 1t is the deaths
head at the banquet Of childhood.
But garden" is very different al.
fair It's ways are ways Of unpleas-
antness, and all its paths are peace.
knowledge is sugar.coated. Dull
drill is set TO music, drudgery is dig
nifed, and there is no more monotony.
When the petite pupil is not a bird or
an insect, he is a flower or some sort
of small fruit. When ho is not sing
ing or dancing, he is pricking geomet-
rical figures in paper, or learning the
elements Of music from colors, or 9th.
erwise taking deep sea soundings Of
Froebel. And when the short, sonsi.
bic hours of the session are over, he
goes home brighter and better in body
and brain.
The kitchen garden is the first
cousin of the kindergarten. The
theory of instruction is the same !;
many Of the methods are alike, and it
looks very much as though we had re-
ally hit upon solu tion of that pro-
blem Of the ages known as the SER
want girl question. 1t began in a very
modest way four years ago IN New
York, and, naturally enough, woman
was at the bottom of it. The idea
was to teach little girls in poor iami-
lies how to keep house. They were
taught, at the mission schools which
they attended, not only how TO read
and write, but how TO sweep and dust,
and make bed, and set table, in the
highest style of the art. They did all
this with the aid Of toy implements
and table sets. The rules by which
they did these things were embodied
in the verses OF songs which
they sang while they worked. The
garden has its moulding" "pricking"
and "dish-washing days j" the children
como in classes, and are Of all ages,
one class of thirty-one, being all of
them under seven years of age. The
teaching has been done mostly by la
dies who have volunteered their ser
vices. Miss Huntingdon, who origi.
mated the system, has privately prin-
ted textbook which is used, and at
persent, between five and six hundred
children are being instructed by about
seventy teachers
The kitchen garden has a distinct
organization, president and vice.
president, the latter having taught the
system last summer to ladies in Bel.
fast, Ireland, where successful classes
are now in operation, during their
works with American toys. This is
certainly carrying the war into Africa.
If Bridget can be taught young on
her nalive heaIn, aud trausiormea
into n thornnchhred kitchen gardener
before she comes to this country,
housekeeping will be robbed of half
its terrors. The race of Goths and
Vandals will pass away, and there
will rise in their places dett-handed
maidens, whose Celtic good nature
will be supplemented by faculty"
fairly New England in its thorough
ness. 1t is doubtful whether tho elab.
orate higher education OF women has
produced anything more rational or
more far-reaohing in its results than
this hand.training of little girls to do
mostic service. Many of the pupils of
1876 and the following years have al
ready proved the efficiency of their
training by obtaining situations which
they fill with credit to themselves and
satisfaction to their employers, and in
which they earn the higher wages
which skilled labor always commands.
So successful is the work, and 80 fasci-
mating are its methods, that it is
spreading from the poor to the pros
porous classes, and perhaps the fact
that Boston has kitchen garden,
whose pupils are the children ofwealthy
parents, may do something TO di'
minish the unreasonable prejudice
against honest house-work. Too much
value can hardly be attached TO this
new idea in mission work.