192 The Ottawa Naturalist, [January 



assume that a subject suitable tor very young- children and tor 

 mature students is an appropriate one for the intermediate age ? 



Herbert Spencer defines Life as " the power ot continuous 

 adjustment of internal relations to external relations." Just as 

 physical life depends upon continuous adjustment to environmental 

 variations, so does the life of a system of education depend upon 

 its constant adaptation to the Spirit of the Times Let us briefly 

 consider the chief ch;iracteristics of the Twentieth Century educa- 

 tional Zeit Geist which has been called " The New Education." 

 We shall then inquire whether Nature Study is a subject in har- 

 mony with the ideals of the New Education. 



The following' are four of the chief requirements ot the New 

 Education. 



L With special reference to the student : 



a. Study thing's rather than books, the actual rather than 

 the representative, first-hand rather than second-hand knowledge. 



h. Study causes rather than effects, general principles rather 

 than mere facts, the why rather than the what. 



\\. With special reference to the teacher : 



c. Attract rather than compel the learner, remembering that 

 the most favorable results are obtained when the child is in 

 sympathy with the teacher and the subject. 



d. Develop the child rather than teach the book, remem- 

 bering that education is now pcedocentric and no longer bibho- 

 centric. 



a. Things rather than books. 



"Education is the cultivation ofa just and legitimate familiarity 

 betwixt the mind and things." The introduction of manual training 

 is evidence that we are recognizing the fact that in the education 

 of the young, things should be used as instruments of training. 

 In Nature Study, the physical, the tangible, is emp'oyed with the 

 object of leading the pupils to discover truth there objectified. 

 '* The world is the thought of God." True Nature Study is an 

 effort of interpretation, of trying " to think God's thoughts after 

 Him." It is teaching through things instead of through signs of 

 things. 



