The Teaching of Nature-Study 5 



an aquarium for fish, many small aquaria for insects and each had one or 

 two absorbingly interested spectators who were quiet, well behaved and 

 were getting their nature-study lessons in an ideal manner. The teacher 

 told me that the problem of discipline was solved by this method, and 

 that she was rarely obliged to rebuke or punish. In many other schools, 

 watching the living creatures in the aquaria, or terrarium has been used 

 as a reward for other work well done. 



THE RELATION* OF NATURE-STUDY TO SCIENCE 



ATURE-STUDY is not elementary science as so taught, 

 because its point of attack is not the same; error in this 

 respect has caused many a teacher to abandon nature- 

 study and many a pupil to hate it. In elementary science 

 the work begins with the simplest animals and plants 

 and progresses logically through to the highest forms; at 

 least this is the method pursued in most universities and 

 schools. The object of the study is to give the pupils an outlook over 

 all the forms of life and their relation one to another. In nature-study 

 the work begins with any plant or creature which chances to interest the 

 pupil. It begins with the robin when it comes back to us in March, 

 promising spring; or it begins with the maple leaf which flutters to the 

 ground in all the beauty of its autumnal tints. A course in biological 

 science leads to the comprehension of all kinds of life upon our globe. 

 Nature-study is for the comprehension of the individual life of the 

 bird, insect or plant that is nearest at hand. 



Nature-study is perfectly good science within its limits, but it is not 

 meant to be more profound or comprehensive than the capabilities of the 

 child's mind. More than all, nature-study is not science belittled as if 

 it were to be looked at through the reversed opera glass in order to bring 

 it down small enough for the child to play with. Nature-study, as far as 

 it goes, is just as large as is science for "gro\vn-ups" and may deal with the 

 same subject matter and should be characterized by the same accuracy. 

 It simply does not go so far. 



To illustrate : If we are teaching the science of ornithology, we take 

 first the Archaeopteryx, then the swimming and the scratching birds and 

 finally reach the song birds, studying each as a part of the whole. Nature- 

 study begins with the robin because the child sees it and is interested in it 

 and he notes the things about the habits and appearance of the robin that 

 may be perceived by intimate observation. In fact, he discovers for him- 

 self all that the most advanced book of ornithology would give concerning 

 the ordinary habits of this one bird; the next bird studied may be the 

 turkey in the barnyard, or the duck on the pond, or the screech-owl in the 

 spruces, if any of these happen to impinge upon his notice and interest. 

 However, such nature-study makes for the best of scientific ornithology, 

 because by studying the individual birds thus thoroughly, the pupil 

 finally studies a sufficient number of forms so that his knowledge, thus 

 assembled, gives him a better comprehension of birds as a whole than 

 could be obtained by the routine study of the same. Nature-study does 

 not start out with the classification given in books, but in the end it builds 

 up a classification in the child's mind which is based on fundamental 

 knowledge; it is a classification like that evolved by the first naturalists, 

 it is built on careful personal observations of both form and life. 



