NEWS NOTES 227 



matter svifficient to accomplish the daily tasks and stop short of 

 the wide vision. So her pupils are doing humdrum work under a 

 taskmaster rather than having stimulating contact with a mind 

 that is alert and fired with the touch of the infinite. 



It is eminently desirable, then, that every teacher undertaking to 

 give instruction in nature-study should select some little field of 

 nature — the warblers, the ferns of her region, the butterflies, the 

 common rocks and come to know this one restricted field intima- 

 mately. Let her take as models some of the studies in William 

 Hamilton Gibsons "Eye Spy" or "Sharp Eyes." Read them with 

 due regard to their scientific accuracy, their literary charm and 

 the artistic expression of the accompanying sketches. Let her 

 study in the field frequently some individual plant or animal then 

 try to accomplish some such sympathetic description and sketches 

 of it. Only in some such way can she be led to right methods in 

 the instruction of little children. She must come in touch with the 

 contagious enthusiasm, the fidelity, the artistic appreciation of 

 some great nattue lover, either personally or through his books else 

 the coal of fire can never unseal her lips. 



Then I would have her study some book that will lead her to see 

 what great problems are hidden in these commonplace things 

 about us. Take, for instance, Darwin's Origin of Species, Wallace's 

 Island Life, Bateson's Heredity or Walter's Genetics. So may she 

 be inspired to observe that she may reason to correct conclusions. 

 Thinking thus she may stimulate her pupils to think independently 

 on a basis of their own observ^ations, to draw just conclusions from 

 the evidence of their own consciousness. What larger contribution 

 can she make to the welfare of a democracv? 



News Notes 



The Buffalo herd on the Wichita national forest, Oklahoma, now 

 numbers 48, 10 calves having been born this year. When the 

 buffalo were introduced on the Wichita in 1907 there were 15 head. 



The Grand Rapids Nature-Study Society and the Nature-Study 

 Club of Indiana issued very neat programs for season of 1912-13. 

 Similar programs are expected for the present year. 



