Posts Tagged ‘Loran DeWolfe’
early schools – Arbour Day
Trees in the school yard, especially big trees suitable for climbing and swinging, would have been an appreciated feature of the school landscape. On a hot June day, students would have enjoyed the shade under a big tree.
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In the 1940s and 50s, some of these trees may have been planted sixty years before by students learning about abouriculture. By the early 1900s, there were Arbour Day celebrations in Canada when students planted trees at school and elsewhere in the community. The first official Arbour Day in Canada was established in 1906 by Don Clark of Schomberg, Ontario to remember his wife Margaret.
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big spruce trees in the yard of the Cumberland Bay School, New Brunswick
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In Nova Scotia, schools celebrated Arbour Day by 1929 and perhaps before. In May and June that year, officials organized the planting of trees and shrubs in the school yard and involved community members and local dignitaries in the events to encourage their interest in the school system. In 1928, the newspaper Halifax Harald offered, province-wide, a $700 prize for school beautification, which would have included the planting of trees (Jane Norman, Loran Arthur DeWolfe and The Reform of Education in Nova Scotia 1891-1959. Truro, Nova Scotia: Atlantic Early Learning Productions, 1989).
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The idea of planting trees in school yards continues to this day. Trees are important because they:
- clean our air of pollutants
- remove carbon dioxide, to reduce the contribution to global warming
- prevent soil erosion
- trap water pollutants by directing flow downward
- provide habitat for birds, bees and squirrels
- raise property values
- provide the oxygen we breathe
- provide shade
- make great places for climbing and swinging
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
early schools – school gardens
It’s gardening time in New Brunswick. While I tend my little tomato plants, I wonder if one room schools in the early 1900s kept school gardens.
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Was there once a school garden in the yard of this one room school near Gagetown, New Brunswick?
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In the province of Nova Scotia, some schools had gardens. My aunt, Dr. Jane Norman, in her history of Nova Scotia’s schools, tells about the Travelling Teachers program and the ‘Garden Score Card’ (Jane Norman, Loran Arthur DeWolfe and The Reform of Education in Nova Scotia 1891-1959. Truro, Nova Scotia: Atlantic Early Learning Productions, 1989). The Travelling Teachers operated from 1918-1920, bringing knowledge and help to schools in their districts about rural science, including home-making, healthy living and gardening.
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In 1918-19, to encourage gardening as part of the school program, the Rural Science Department of the Nova Scotia Normal College (where teachers were trained) donated $10.00 to each Travelling Teachers’ school district. School children and schools who obtained the highest scores on the ‘Garden Score Card’ shared the money as follows:
- three school children with the highest scores won prizes of $2.50, $1.50 and $1.00
- three schools with the highest scores won prizes of $2.50, $1.50 and $1.00
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The ‘Garden Score Card’ rated the school gardens and the efforts of the children with the following criteria:
- Condition of Garden:
- Planting and arrangement of plants (5)
- Thinning, training, regularity in row (5)
- Cultivation and freedom from weeds (10)
- Freedom from diseases and insect pests (10)
- General neatness of paths, labels, stakes, etc. (5)
- Consideration of adverse conditions, if any (5)
- Range of variety in flowers and vegetables (10)
- Amount and quality of bloom (flowers) and crop (vegetables) (15)
- Amount and value of canning or sales (20)
- Showing made at exhibition (15) Total Points (100)
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The school children in my drawing are working hard, but based on the ‘Garden Score Card’, they would not have received a prize for their gardening! No stakes, no labels, no regularity in the row.
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How would your gardening efforts be scored??? I would not make good marks on any criterion!
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
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