Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-07
TEACHING GARDENING
IMPORTANCE OF THE SCHOOL
GARDEN MOVEMENT.
Children Learn Best From Nature and
Not From Books-Object
Lessons.

From the Southern Workman.
Educational systems are constantly
changing and we are no doubt making
have been slow to grasp the idea that the
best education comes from the study of
things rather than from the exclusive study
of books. Education that does not fit a
man to be better able to support himself
and those persons dependent upon him falls
short of it's mission. But education should
do more than this. 1t should enlarge a
mans sphere and make him better cit
izen. 1t is this fact which the state takes
into consideration in furnishing education
to community, for it gets a return for it's
outlay in having better citizens, and as q
consequence a better stats.
Plant Life.
The school garden movement which has
recently started in this country has a great
future before it. School gardening is a
natural method of teaching, because the
pupils learn from things and not from
books The child who is dull in mathe-
mates in the class room becomes intelli-
gent when he begins to study it's value in
the garden. The little plants which he cul-
tivates and learns to love develop his
esthetic nature, and thus tend to make his
life more beautiful. They tell him the story
of their lives in such a way that he will
never forget it. while he might grind for
weeks over the subject treated in some
text book without becoming interested. 1t
has been found that school gardening IN
spires one to do better work in other
branches; in Dayton, Ohio, where school
gardens have been conducted for six or
seven years, boys taking gardening make
80 per cent more rapid progress IN their
studies than those who have no gardens.
Again. moral influence is beyond the
teaching of text books. At the School OF
Horticulture. in Hartford, Conn, and in
other places 1t has been found that boys
coming from the toughest city districts
those boys who are always trying to steal
if they have the opportunity-begin to get
ideas of ownership and of the value of what
they work for. They realize that they have
certain crops which belong to them, and
that the boy in the next garden Is also
titled to his own products, and the steal
ing habit is cured.
Gardens in Cities.
School gardens should be conducted in the
CITY for the purpose of teaching the pupils
how things grow and what they are; they
also help in teaching geography, business
habits and system and care in doing things.
At the Hyannis State Normal School, where
school gardens are conducted, the chill
dren sell their produce and deposit their
money in bank. Each member has a check
book and a deposit book, and thus the
children learn something of banking as
of bookkeeping:
While school gardens needed in the
city, they are even more important in the
country where land is accessible and where
the children are familiar with agricultural
occupations. AS a rule, country children,
when they finish school, expect to earn
their living the farm. Upon their skill
in farming will depend theif own prosper
ity as we'll as that of the community and
of the state. Is it right, then, to give
child instruction for several years in SUBJ
jects some of which may be of but little
future use to him, and withhold it in those
upon which his making a livelihood de-
ponds? If a community does this it fails
to understand the mission of education.