VOLUME

ORGANIZED KNOWLEDGE

SCHOOL GARDEN. In the great movement which has as its slogan "Back to the farm, the school garden is having no slight influence. To day there are in Europe over 100,000 gardens cultivated by pupils, and the School Garden Association of America has members in every state in the Union and in most of the Canadian provinces, as well as in the dependencies of the United States. A garden is a practical laboratory in which the pupils gain first-hand knowledge of the principles of nature study, agriculture, botany, manual training and physical exercise, and gardening is easily correlated with arithmetic, geography, drawing, composition, bookkeeping and other school subjects. Furthermore, the cultivation of the soil is of fundamental importance in helping solve the problem of keeping the world's population fed. School gardens are, therefore, an advantage from every point of view.

Best results are achieved in those communities where the school garden is conducted as a part of the regular curriculum, and the board provides a specially trained instructor to direct the regular teachers and to supervise the work. At the same time much has been accomplished by schools not so fortunately provided for. In some communities the gardening has to be done outside of regular school hours, but even so the results have been such as to create favorable interest in the movement throughout the community. The question of space is also a problem that must be dealt with differently in different localities. If possible, the schoolgarden plots should be in or adjacent to the school yard. If it is impracticable to give each pupil a separate plot to take care of, the garden may be divided into rows. Every pupil should have a definite work to do, and be required to record the results of his work in a permanent booklet. Where the space is very limited the teacher should encourage the planting of window-box gardens. Even the borders along the edges of yards can be utilized.

In addition to the advantages already mentioned a school garden is an economic gain of

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no mean importance. The money value of what such a garden can produce is often surprising; the lessons the pupils learn from turning labor into cash or its equivalent is in the highest degree educatiorial. Here many boys and girls discover for the first time that wealth lies inherent in the soil. It may be that. the home consumes all the products of a garden plot, but even so, the lesson conveyed need lose none of its emphasis.

In the articles BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS and GARDENING will be found the practical details one needs to know in carrying on gardening work of this nature. The Division of Home and School Gardens, of the United States Department of Agriculture, will respond to all requests for help and information. See, also, list of Related Subjects, in article GARDENING.

SCHOPENHAUER, sho'pen hou er, ARTHUR (1788-1860), a German scholar who formulated a system of pessimistic philosophy. He believed that the only "necessary reality in the universe is will," and by will he meant blind force, capricious and contrary as often as it was rational. There is, therefore, no reason to believe that things will ever be better. To secure happiness one must restrain all desires and appetites and aspire to a condition of negation similar to the Nirvana of Buddhism (which see). Schopenhauer was born in Danzig, Prussia. In 1809 he began the study of medicine at Göttingen University, but abandoned it for the study of philosophy; in 1813 he was graduated from the University of Jena. Between 1814 and 1818 he made Dresden his home, writing at this time his greatest work, The World as Will and Idea. Later he endeavored to lecture in Berlin in opposition to Hegel, the apostle of idealism, but was unsuccessful (see HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM). Disappointed and embittered, he removed to Frankfort-on-theMain, where he spent several years in seclusion. Late in his life and after his death the fame he had longed for attached itself to his name. Though he overemphasized the tragic aspect of life, he performed a worthy service in the field of speculation.