What Spring Means to Our Church-Schools
By F. G.
There is, perhaps, no other season of the year when nature is so abundant in her teachings as in the spring. New life is awakening everywhere and in everything. The teacher's opportunities are consequently never so great at any other season as this. These opportunities should be seized upon by every one of our primary teachers all over the country. The study of the birds that come north to build their nests and erect their homes is in itself a most delightful one. Even the study of the bird songs is indeed most charming and profitable. The springing of the flowers brings great opportunities for the teacher who is in love with nature and with its God. Children love flowers. This love seems inborn in every one. Every teacher should seek to have a garden. To insure the most good from the garden and its proper care, it should be a missionary garden, so that after the school is closed, there may be a real interest in caring for it until it has been brought to maturity, and the things which are grown are harvested and disposed of, and the money turned over to the cause to which it may be assigned. The children should also be encouraged to plant and care for gardens at their own homes. These different lines of study naturally break up the ordinary routine of study, and it is a wise teacher who can take the school out into the field and by the wayside and still preserve a spirit20of study and discipline. Hundreds of teachers are doing it continually, and every progressive teacher will seek to get from this outdoor work that knowledge and education which forms an essential feature of every system for the proper education of children. This work, though it requires extra study and effort on the part of the teacher, yields abundant returns in developing an active mind and spontaneity of thought. Children are more or less weary with the close confinement of the schoolroom during the winter. Here they have an opportunity for rest from it, and for recreation. We hope that those teachers who have experience in this work, and have met and overcome some of the difficulties which are naturally encountered in it, will give others the benefit of their experience.