comprehend social situations; social sympathy, or the capacity to feel social situations; and social efficiency, or the capacity to control these situations.

Let us apply this standard to such nature study as we commonly find in our elementary schools. This consists of a somewhat orderly arrangement of facts concerning the physical world, without much regard to their relative importance facts about plants and animals and the inorganic world, brought together with little thought of their human setting. The germination of seeds, the growth of plants, the habits of animals, the effects of soil, temperature, and moisture upon plant life, are taught, and collections of various kinds are made without reference to the part these things play in determining human relations. There may be interest in such work, but there is not social interest. We have only a sort of educational solitaire, in which the characteristically human touch is lacking. Social power cannot be developed by such processes.

Agriculture properly taught furnishes a social background for much that is going on under the name of nature study. The germination of seeds, the growth of plants, the collection of specimens, the observation and classification of plants and animals, lose their isolation and assume a vital social value. Nature study thus becomes less theoretic and abstract; more practical and concrete. The facts regarding plants and animals, soil and climate, form parts of a story that has meaning and motive, and the interest centers itself upon large, rich thoughts rather than upon details, in themselves unimportant. Mr. Carter has presented a suggestive body of matter appropriate to such study, which I need not dwell upon at further length.

Judged by our social standard, the educational importance of facts depends upon the extent to which social relations are determined by those facts. The final thought that I shall advance is that agriculture, as the largest single industry of our economic system, is one of the most powerful factors in determining human relations. The leader in this discussion has brought out, in many of its details, the social bearing of the subject, but has failed to carry out the thought to its conclusion. The field for the teaching of agriculture must not be limited to the rural schools, but must be extended to all schools, city and rural alike. The subject has a practical value, if the standard I have suggested be accepted, far more fundamental than that advanced in the leading paper. The teaching of agriculture is not only practically valuable, but is practically necessary in a school that aims to bring its pupils to a vivid comprehension of their social background and to develop in them an habitual attitude that prompts them to measure their individual powers by the standard of social efficiency. The requirements of enlightened citizenship, then, are the highest justification of the teaching of agriculture in the public schools.

MISS CORINNE MARCELLUS, director of the kindergarten, Hartigan School, Chicago, Ill. I think we shall all agree that gardening has great educational value even for the very young children, but I am sure we shall be unanimous in saying that it presents huge difficulties in most of our school environments; so, rather than theorize, I will tell you a little of what has been accomplished in some Chicago schools.

That a practical and successful garden can be planned and cultivated in connection with a public school kindergarten seems to have been fully demonstrated by the teachers and children of the D. S. Wentworth School, furnishing at the same time a very remarkable example of "where there's a will there's a way." To begin with, they felt strongly the value of gardening, and having once made up their minds that a garden was the thing to have, they compelled circumstances to shape themselves to that end.

Of course the first requisite, and also the first difficulty which confronted them, was to get a piece of old mother earth large enough for their purpose. For a time this was so serious a problem that it seemed as tho their hopes must be abandoned, and then I think they reasoned that the lack of anything so plentiful as dirt in a Chicago kindergarten district should not deter them. There was no school yard, and a vacant lot near by which might have been secured had no fence, so they set to work investigating the cost of fences. By strict economy and good management they found they could fence

in that lot for $150, but as this seemed to necessitate a cut in salaries it was deemed unadvisable. Then they appealed to the mothers, with the result that one mother, the fortunate possessor of some ground, loaned them a garden 25 x 50 feet. Next came the thoro preparation of the teacher herself for the work, and this was accomplished by consulting all the garden lore of the Chicago Public Library and by the giving up of many afternoons in study.

Then began the actual work, which was done entirely by the children. They were divided into two groups of about twenty-five each, each group working a while every day. The ground had to be cleaned of all rubbish and cornstalks left from last year, and a glorious bonfire celebrated its completion. The children all accompanied the director to engage a plowman, who gave his services for one dollar, and such fun as it was to follow the plow, and such mysteries of squirming worms, bugs, and stones as it unearthed. It was then platted into beds, the children using strings to make the paths straight. At last the garden was ready for planting. The children brought many kinds of seeds. Of the flowers the nasturtiums were found the most successful. The pansies were not a success, but no fault could be found with the morning-glory vine which covered an unsightly fence. Radishes, lettuce, cabbage, onions, and potatoes were planted in other beds, and the children were very much surprised at the cutting up of the potatoes in planting. Sweet corn and popcorn were planted, and as no cornfield was ever complete without big, yellow pumpkins, these were not omitted.

In due time the tiny plants appeared and the results in the child garden were no less apparent; never once had the children been told to keep off the grass in the surrounding yard or reminded in their care of the garden. They marched from the school to the garden in an orderly line, but then were allowed to work informally, and the question of discipline solved itself. Many were the surprises for those whose experience had never gone beyond the barrel in the grocery store.

The radishes and lettuce matured before the close of school, and a party celebrated the occasion. The next unique feature was a sale. Dainty invitations made by the children were sent to the mothers, and no regrets were received. On the auspicious day many little storekeepers with their check-books stood behind tables filled with bright radishes and green lettuce, and sufficient money was taken in to buy a beautiful picture for the kindergarten. During the summer the garden was cared for by the director and neighboring children, and in the fall they reaped a glorious harvest. There were six perfect ears of popcorn which decorated the Christmas tree; a long sunflower stalk for a flagstaff; another sale of vegetables; a Thanksgiving party in which another kindergarten participated; gourds for decorations; and many seeds put away for next season. It was an abundant harvest in more ways than one, and I think those who planned and directed and made possible this harvest must have also received their full share.

In the next instance, the Burr School, the whole school participated. A vacant lot 348 X 158 feet was loaned, divided into beds, and each room in the primary given a bed. Vegetables and grains only were planted, and the children worked half an hour each day under the supervision of a teacher. The grammer grades were given seeds with instructions for home window-boxes and flower-beds, and prizes were offered for the best results in the fall.

In the interest of this subject, I visited many schools which have done successful gardening, and in each case I found success due to personal effort on the part of the teacher. If our system of education can be said to be superficial, is it not due to our inability to show the child the connection between cause and effect? He learns about things, but does he come in contact with the process of their creation? Can we develop logical thought without showing him this process, especially with our younger children? And what more beautiful or natural way can we find than thru nature herself? Is it not worth a strenuous effort on our part? I believe we can overcome all the difficulties of environment and methods if we are earnest and willing to work, and I know the harvest

will not be alone that which the earth yields, for there will be harvests of mind and spirit. There is no study in our curriculum which cannot be correlated with this subject, and the principles of evolution drawn from this experience and applied to other subjectmatter will put new life into the school routine, and education will become a more natural process.

MISS ELIZABETH HARRISON, principal of the Chicago Kindergarten College.If the steadily increasing demand for gardens in connection with schools is any evidence of their value, we have but to turn to that most convincing of all arguments, namely, the statistics of the subject. In Europe there are over 100,000 school gardens, not including the more or less extensive patch of ground that is a part of every kindergarten on the continent.

I have not been able to obtain the exact statistics concerning the number of American schools that have gardens as part of their scheme of work; but they are far behind Europe in this respect. Our kindergartens, on the one hand, and our state agricultural schools on the other, are doing much to increase interest in this important subject.

The former, the kindergartens, aim only at teaching the love of plant life and a tender protecting care of the same, the names and the general characteristics of the special plants cultivated being incidental to the awakening of the right interest in nature and the development of the right will power in the treatment of plants, shrubs, and trees. The latter, the state agricultural schools, train their students into a scientific knowledge of agriculture, together with practical experience in gardening, farming, horticulture, and to a certain extent forestry.

Between these two extremes lie the elementary schools, the secondary schools, the high schools, and the normal schools, where the work is as yet largely in the experimental stage, with a few brilliant exceptions.

It is not in my province, in the brief time alloted to me, to speak of the commensense argument for a knowledge of gardening as an important part of each child's education, inasmuch as the earth is not only his home, but the producer of all of the food that he eats and of much of the clothing that he wears, not to speak of the practical economy that arises from knowing how to make a few feet of earth bring forth a sufficient living for two or three people, with a small addition of meat, butter, milk, etc. I am personally acquainted with a man who by the scientific gardening of fifteen acres has maintained a family of five and saved money enough to give a college education to each of his four boys. This is but one illustration of the economical value of a knowledge of gardening. Nor have I time to discuss the moral influence which is created by teaching boys to love to work in a garden rather than to loaf on the streets or congregate in the back alleys.

I have an intimate friend whose life work has been the tutoring of boys preparatory to their entrance to college. His home is in one of the finest suburbs of Chicago, and upon his grounds are beautiful trees and shrubs and well laid out gardens. He states that without exception he has had to teach each city boy who has come to him a respect for nature; that invariably they begin by pulling the branches off of the shrubs, whittling the trunks of the trees, and ruthlessly tramping down the gardens in their heedless play; that in each case he has cured this vandalism by giving the boy a plot of ground of his own to cuitivate, and leading him little by little to see the wonder, and then the beauty, of the great world about him. The boys were not "the roughs" of our city, but came from cultivated homes. The fact that they had had little or no direct contact with nature had left them still in the savage attitude toward nature, namely, that of mastering her by destroying her.

This brings us to the practical value of gardening as it is used by the kindergarten. The young child who comes to our kindergarten is largely in the emotional stage of development. Therefore, it can readily be seen that it is an important thing to educate his affection for plant life, to lead him to feel that it is a part of the same divine, mys

terious creation of which he is a part, in order that reverence, that deepest of all emotions may be stirred within him. No one who has ever watched the glow on a child's face when he first discovers the cotyledons that have mysteriously appeared where he planted the seed, or who has seen the light that shines in his eyes when he carefully plucks for the first time a blossom from his plant, can doubt the soul stirring which such an experience gives. But the garden of a kindergarten does much more than this. The children are taught that it is part of their daily life to water and care for the plants of their schoolroom, or school garden. Thus a sense of loving responsibility is awakened and strengthened as the year goes forward. Surely the Lord knew best when he placed man and woman in a garden for their development, and, having failed to profit by their environment, condemned them to till the soil. The race instinct which created this great world-enduring mythus was a true one, and we will do well to follow it.

THE USE AND DANGER OF METHOD

W. A. MILLIS, SUPERINTENDENT OF CITY SCHOOLS, CRAWFORDSVILLE, IND.

Education is a process. There are several agencies employed in bringing about this process. One of these is inspiration, or suggestion. Thru this channel the spirit of a people is communicated from generation to generation. The hopes, aspirations, ambitions, viewpoints, and insights of an individual or a nation are largely received thru "the hem of the garment." What are known as the spirit of the age, the genius of a people, the atmosphere of a school, are communicated chiefly thru the suggestions that come out of personal contact. The inspiration of the ancient prophets was not an exceptional phenomenon, but a notable instance of a prominent universal element in the educational movement. A second factor is imitation. While the individual acquires the inner content of life from those about him thru suggestion or inspiration, he secures the forms of life for the clothing and expression of spirit by appropriation of the forms and usages in vogue in his environment. By means of this appropriation, or imitation, he acquires his dress, manners, language, institutions, and the character of his occupation. Infrequently suggestion and imitation combine to make him inventive of a new form or institution.

These elements, suggestion, imitation, and invention, proceed out of the constitution of the individual and his reaction upon the environment with which he comes into contact. These processes are elemental and constitute the chief factors in the educational process, but if the individual were left to the development coming solely from the experience. growing out of associations which his own impulses would secure, the results would be uncertain. There would be a large margin of chance, his development would be both slow and imperfect, and inadequate to the demands made upon his adult life. Society, therefore, supplements the native educational process by bringing to bear an institutional agency, teaching.

Education is a process, a movement in the life of an individual. Teaching is an art employed in facilitating and directing this process or movement along lines believed to be most wholesome. This process is according to certain laws, a part of which are inherent in the nature of human life, and a part of which are inherent in the nature of human environment. If the individual is to experience the educational movement, he must pass thru certain activities determined in his own nature. He must also pass thru a certain order or sequence of activities determined by the nature of the environment with which he seeks to come into adjustment. These activities required of him as a means of growth, these conditions imposed upon him, constitute what we call the "principles of education." They are also referred to us as the " method of education," as distinguished from the "art of teaching." The nature and sequence of activity determined by the nature of the individual are sometimes referred to as "subjective method," while the sequence imposed by the object of mastery or appropriation constitutes "objective method." Another phrasing connoting the same distinctions is the method in the individual and the method in the subject.

Now, teaching is an art or practice, in the sense in which we speak of the practice of law or the practice of medicine, and has for its purpose to facilitate the educational activities of the child. To be effective it must conform to the principles or laws of the process which we denominate "method of education." It must keep within the limits which these principles impose. In so far as it goes beyond these limits or fails to conform to these principles the practice becomes ineffective and futile. But the art of teaching may have great liberty within the limits set by the principles of education. A principle of action does not define the whole of the practice pursued in conformity therewith. It merely defines certain conditions which the practice must satisfy as the price of success. It is a common divisor rather than a multiple. Art deals with a particular set of conditions. Principle has to do with a general characteristic applicable to all situations. Educational method sets up the general course, the guiding lines of practice. After satisfying these conditions the art of teaching is subject to a law of its own, and, practically, this is the law of efficiency.

It is evident that the school as an institution for teaching must have a definite methodology if it (a) is to accomplish the end it has in view, and if it (b) is to accomplish this end with economy of time and effort, both of which are important considerations. The school must have both a clear working conception of educational principles and a definite code of practice. The teacher must have an adequate grounding in the laws which govern her profession, and at the same time possess definite methods of teaching-a definite plan of procedure.

What use shall the teacher make of method?

In the first place she