THE VALUE OF SCHOOL GARDENS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9652, 17 November 1909, Page 4

THE VALUE OF SCHOOL GARDENS.

From the experience gained during ;a number of years' work in school .gardens, and as a result of very many searching inquiries of teachers and parents, we have been convinced, ■eays the author of "Practical School 'Gardening," that school gardening . and nature study when properly co- : ordinated with the rest of the work : 'in a school, can be, and often is, a most valuable means of education. It instils into the minds of the children methodical reasoning, adaptability .and'resource; it cultivates the love of the beautiful; it improves the powers of observation and create? a feeling'of good comradeship. Gardening, moreover, gives a zest to the j school life, and has been proved to I improve the physique of the children allowed to take part in it. To rank, however, m a subject for education, j and aot merely as one for instruction* it is ; e3sential that the gardening is .not considered as the one outdoor subject independent of all the I others—jt must be woven into the J [ scheme o£ the school. Arithmetic and j composition lessons can deal with tne : actual work of, and the'results ob- ' j tained from, the School garden. His- , torv, geography, and physiography can be illustrated by its means. Freearm and freehand drawing, brush work, etc., can al! benefit from and assist in reording the work in the garden, etc. If the garden is* thus employed as a line between the I different subjects now taught in the ] schoois its effect must be, and has ■ already proved to hi, beneficial to ' the true education of th • individual i •

BcluLrs and to the school as a whole.