Luther Burbank, one of the most outstanding botanists who ever lived, was also keenly interested in the nurturance of children. He had some surprising but fascinating things to say:

“No boy or girl should see the inside of a schoolhouse until at least ten years old…every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water-bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud-turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade in, water-lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hay-fields, pinecones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets; and any child who has been depived of these has been deprived of the best part of his education.”

Training of the Human Plant, 1906.