330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



NATUEE-PLAY 



By CHARLES LINCOLN EDWARDS, Ph.D. 



DIRECTOR OF NATURE-STUDY, LOS ANGELES CITY SCHOOLS 



CHILDEEN" have a natural interest in all things that are alive, and 

 especially in such comrades as the dog and cat. The nature-study 

 that does not appeal to this interest is worthless. Without formal 

 lessons and examinations and stimulated only by the spirit of play, the 

 child may get an understanding of the other animals that live in the 

 world about him. This is a recreation subject, with the world for its 

 playground ; wherein a deep-lying sympathy, bred through the ancestral 

 ages of growth near to the heart of nature, shall lead the child into the 

 joy of living and the happiness of love and knowledge. Nature-play, 

 rather than nature-study, is the key to this wonderful fairyland, of 

 which the child is a part. 



In the elementary schools, there should be the freedom to teach and 

 the freedom to learn which have always distinguished the universities of 

 Germany. The mechanical prescription of certain conventionally ac- 

 cepted studies for all pupils, without regard to their individual natures, 

 should be replaced by courses adapted to the constitution and needs of 

 each mind. The individuality of the human being must be recognized 

 and respected in the grammar-school grades as well as in the kindergar- 

 ten, high school, college and university. The teaching of all subjects by 

 the one teacher in the primary grades should give place to leadership 

 by specialists, as it has already in the secondary schools and colleges. 

 The success of such departmental instruction in many schools justifies 

 its universal adoption. 



As in the Heimatkunde of the German schools, a knowledge of 

 nature begins with the investigation of the geography and natural 

 history of the home and its neighborhood. Every child, when led by 

 curiosity and interest, is an investigator, and the discoveries made con- 

 stitute the most important part of his education. Through open eyes 

 the child should see the common things about him; and then through 

 imagination he may visit distant lands. The domestic cat is quite as 

 interesting and important as the Siberian tiger. At first, the child 

 thinks he knows all about his common playmate, the cat; and yet, he is 

 ignorant of the most significant fact: of the relationship of the cat to 

 himself and other animals. By the simple process of feeling the top of 

 his head, and looking at the back of his hand, he is brought to realize 

 that he, as well as his cousin the cat, belongs to the fur-bearing animals. 

 He learns that the cat walks about on two hands and two feet, and does 



