1903] Attwood Educational Value of Nature Study. 193 



" Things rather than books," must not be construed, things 

 and not books. In nature, the development of the individual 

 epitomizes the development of the race. The individual does not 

 pass through all the stages through which the race has passed 

 but short cuts are employed when advantageous. Here we have 

 a hint as to the true function of books in education. The work 

 of the young student should epitomize the work of investigators 

 in general but it would be a ruinous waste of time and 

 energy to perform all their researches. The spirit of Nature 

 Study can be cultivated by first-hand investigation of a 

 few facts. Such experience will enable the student to 

 interpret and appreciate what can be more economically 

 obtained from books. Books should be used to direct research, 

 to obtain otherwise inaccessible information, to economize effort 

 by utilizing the labors of others, and to correct or corroborate 

 conclusions deduced from personal experience. A wise man learns 

 through the experience of others. The student should do suffi- 

 cient original work to enable him to interpret and in a measure 

 appreciate, the results of the greater work performed by greater 

 students. Books are the equivalents of Nature's short cuts. 



b. Causes rather than eflfects. 



The causal idea in education is slowly coming into promin- 

 ence. Geography, for example, is being taught as earth-study, 

 not as a study of a description of the earth. Formerly we studied 

 merely the present form of the earth ; now an effort is made to 

 ascertain the relationship between the life history of the earth and 

 its present form. Physical facts have significance and it is the 

 business of the student to interpret a given condition and not to 

 rest satisfied with the mere knowledge that such a condition 

 exists. " Mere faets are dead, but the meaning- of the facts is life. 

 The getting of information is but the beginning of education... 

 Not the fact, but the significance of the fact." In Nature Study 

 children are encouraged to investigate the cause of a given occur- 

 rence. Varying conditions are introduced to modify natural 

 causes and varying results are the consequence. The method of 

 Nature Study is the method of practical life where events do not 

 always happen logically and where varying circumstances must 

 be constantly considered. 



