School garden

“ There is no doubt that the school garden successfully developed is the pivot round which nature-study revolves, and as time goes on it will be seen more and more that gardening and nature-study have much in common. Those ladies who have talent for teaching, and have been through a course of gardening, will find many openings for work. A garden, although artificial, is far less so than a schoolroom, and it combines scope for general education, quite apart from mere manual horticultural teaching. ”

“ Better not plant a garden at all.
In conjunction with this school garden, and of far greater importance, the pupil may be encouraged to grow plants to complete maturity in the garden at home. Here too, he may have a small plot, all his own, on which to exercise the same industry and care he has been taught to use at school. In this home garden he may profit by his school experience and by better planting, more thorough cultivation, careful thinning and the like, bring his plants to complete and more nearly perfect maturity. ”

“ On the other hand, the Macdonald School Gardens, while designed to encourage the cultivation of the soil as an ideal life-work, are intended to promote above all things else symmetrical education of the individual. They do not aim at education to the exclusion of utility, but they seek education through utility, and utility through education. The garden is the means, the pupil is the end. ”

“ In every school a gymnastic ground, a garden for the teacher, according to the circumstances of the community, and a place for the purposes of agricultural experiment are to be created. School inspectors must see to it that, in the country schools, school gardens shall be provided for corresponding agricultural instruction in all that relates to the soil, and that the teacher shall make himself skillful in such instruction. ”

“ The school garden is the first principle of the great study of agriculture, and there should be a garden in connection with every school in the state. There is no reason why we should not have them if we will put into practice what knowledge we are now in possession of along this line. ”

“ Part of the playground has been made into a school garden, and here every pupil in the higher grades has a garden plot, also instruction which enables him to grow successfully some of the commoner fruits and flowers. ”

“ The duties are to supervise the school gardens, give illustrated lectures on gardening in the public schools, extend the home garden work, arrange for autumn flower shows and superintend the improvement of school grounds. Under her leadership, this school garden work is recognized as being among the best in the country. The influence of her work in the city is marked. Each school yard and garden has become a radiating center for civic improvement. Disease breeding and fly breeding places have been cleaned up and the city made more sanitary and more beautiful. ”

“ At the present time there is a very strong feeling that nature study, school gardening, elementary agriculture, domestic science and manual training should be a vital part of the country school curriculum. In Europe the school garden originated with the rural school, and as early as 1814 it was to be found in Germany. Practically all northern European countries with the exception of England require school gardening or elementary agriculture to be taught in the country schools. ”

“ Manual training flourished, however, and the school garden has at least a fighting chance. To contemplate with difficulties in country-school gardening is to do nothing, and while the average country school teacher is not as well trained, perhaps, as she should be, still this does not prevent her form learning something about school gardening and beginning to work in a limited way. ”

“ It is the garden in which they have experienced most pleasure and profit that makes them want to have another better than the last. No school is too small to have a garden of some kind, and no garden is too small to become the joy and pride of some boy or girl. ”

“ In the first place, few teachers and pupils should attempt to grow anything to maturity in school gardens. The reason for this is plain. The country schools close during the latter part of May and early June; the teacher goes to her home, and the little garden in which all have taken such pleasure and pride, lies neglected and forgotten, during the very weeks in which it needs the most attention and care. In a few days, at this rapidly growing season of the year, the weeds have overrun the garden and a little later have completely starved out the plants. ”

“ Instruction in natural history is indispensable to suitably established school gardens. The teachers, then, must be in a condition to conduct them."
In France gardening is practically taught in twenty-eight thousand primary and elementary schools, each of which has a garden attached to it, and is under the care of a master capable of imparting a knowledge of the first principles of horticulture. No one can be appointed master of an elementary school unless qualified to give practical instruction in cultivating the ordinary products of the garden. ”

“ A careless boy will never respect the property of others so much as when he himself has proprietary interests involved. We believe, therefore, that every teacher should encourage his pupils to cultivate plants and, if possible, to own a plot of ground however small.
The teacher should not merely aim at making a garden in the school grounds. The great question is rather how best to use a school garden in connection with the training of boys and girls. To learn to do garden work well is indeed worth while and provides a highly beneficial kind of manual training. ”

“ In one province two hundred and twenty-seven schools out of a total of five hundred and four have school gardens whose whole area is two hundred and eighty-three acres. In 1895 these gardens contained one hundred and eleven thousand fruit trees and two hundred and thirty-eight thousand three hundred planted forest trees. In them the schoolmasters teach tree, vine, grain, garden, silkworm, and bee culture. They are supported by small grants of money from the country and district councils. In the villages, small orchards and kitchen gardens are connected with many primary schools. ”

“ This prevents waste of time in looking for the objects that he wishes his pupils to see. If the teacher wishes to increase his love for nature, he must take many walks without his pupils.
The school garden offers a partial solution of the difficulties mentioned above. It brings a large amount of material to the doors of the school. Plants of the farm or the garden may be studied under various changeable conditions, and it will be seen that insect pests, weeds, and fungous diseases follow the lessons on plants, while lessons on birds and toads follow those on insects. ”

“ The first requisite for such work is such practical knowledge as will make success possible. The introduction of the school garden into this country is entirely feasible. It would create a new avenue of employment for the students in our agricultural colleges and experiment stations ”

“ The city has bought a large tract of land far enough in town to be accessible, and any child who cannot have a garden at home may, by asking, have a garden plot together with lessons in the theory and practice of gardening. The plots are large enough for the pupils to gain considerable experience and to put into practice what they learn in the classroom. Both boys and girls have the gardens, and are given credit for work in them just as for other work. All through the school system every attempt is made to arouse an interest in gardening. ”

“ But much direct experience must come first.
In setting out the furnishing of the school the need for this activity is implied. No school worthy of the name can do without a garden, any more than it can do without reading books, or blackboards, indeed the former need is greater: if it is possible, and possibilities gradually merge into acceptances, a pond should be in the middle of the garden, and trees should also be considered as part of the whole. It is not difficult for the ordinary person to make a pond, or even to begin a garden. ”

“ Part I—Flowers I. A Wild Garden and its Tenants This is the story of a wild garden that was found near a public school on the edge of a big city. None of the children had the tiniest garden, and they were not allowed to pick flowers in the park, even to use in the school room for nature study. So this wild garden, where they could pick armsful of flowers, where they could pull plants up by the roots, where they could gather seed cases and cocoons, and watch insects at work, was a wonder and delight. ”

“ The pupils will take a great interest in the matter if they receive a little encouragement and leadership on the part of their teachers.
Beautify the school grounds. A woven wire trellis supporting a thrifty vine would be a splendid screen for unsightly outbuildings. Shrubs about the foundations of the school building, in the angles of walks, and in natural clumps in the corners of the grounds would add beauty to the school surroundings. A few plots not used for play nor for garden may be grassed. Never scatter the trees or shrubs openly about the lawn area. ”

“ Much interest has been developed in school gardening; and about 100 gardens are annexed to primary schools, affording practical instruction to pupils in agriculture and horticulture. The Government has also established 8 model gardens, where instruction is given the pupils of neighboring schools. ”

“ In a private garden or small school, too, it will be possible to follow the ultimate use the pots are put to, after they are washed, and the reason for each operation will be more easily made apparent than is the case in a large college, where lectures and theoretical classes are sometimes put before practice. When there is a large number of students, too, it is impossible that all should take part in each operation. Personal interest in the garden is apt to be lost sight of, and teaching becomes a “demonstration,” where the expert does the work, and the students look on. ”

“ Institution for the Promotion of Spontaneous Activity in Children; another was Self-Teaching Institution, and there was also the one which Madame Michaelis translated "Nursery School for Little Children."
But the name Kindergarten expressed just what he Wanted: "As in a garden, under God's favour, and by the care of a skilled intelligent gardener, growing plants are cultivated in accordance with Nature's laws, so here in our child garden shall the noblest of all growing things, men (that is, children) , be cultivated in accordance with the laws of their own being, of God and of Nature." ”

“ The vegetable garden is the obvious starting point for most city children; if they do not have tiny gardens in their own backyards, there is a neighbor who has, or they are interested to find out where the vegetables they eat come from and how they are grown.
Both in Indianapolis and Chicago, the public schools realize the value of this sort of work for the children. In Indianapolis, gardening is a regular department in the seventh and eighth grades and the high school. ”

“ Indirectly the Garden has been of much use to the young men who have served as assistants in its office, library, or herbarium, or as teachers in the school of botany, for with very few exceptions they have gone to college, government or other positions of high responsibility in botany or horticulture, for which their service here gave excellent training. ”

“ Now, however, we have made a decided stride, for by means of school gardens, which gradually replace the dreary bit of asphalt playground, we go out to seek objects in their natural surroundings. Soon, teachers in our elementary schools, possessing the Froebel and kindergarten certificate and a Government teacher’s certificate, will doubtless [32] be fired with ambition; will vie with each other in improving upon this system of education. ”

“ Fig. 4. Prize corn and a ten-year-old experimenter in one of Supt. Kern's districts, Illinois.
School-Gardens.
Many lines of work might be suggested for an occasional period. Perhaps the best one for spring is a school-garden. In time, every good school will have its garden, as it now has charts and blackboards and books. A school-garden is a laboratory-room added to the school house. It may be five feet square or ten times that much. The children prepare the land,—lessons in soils, soil physics; sow the seed,—lessons in planting, germination, and the [37] like ”

“ The children are sent to school, and return home only in holiday time, or they have daily teachers who leave them after lessons. Surely an arrangement might be made by which some of their free time could be turned to profitable, and yet pleasant account, by their working a little in the garden under the direction of the lady gardener. Children love planting and digging. If encouraged, they will take the greatest interest in beautifying a garden. Some lessons in nature study, too, could be given occasionally to increase their love for a country life. ”

“ Twenty or more of the regular school buildings in the city have been fitted up with carpenter shops and cooking and sewing rooms as well as laboratories for work in science. Each one of these schools has a garden where the pupils learn how to do practical city gardening. From one-fourth to even a half of the children’s time is spent on manual training instead of one-eighth as in the other schools of the city, and in other respects the regular curriculum is being followed. ”