102 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [2:3- march, ,906 



the primary grades cannot do all of nature-study. They can do noth- 

 ing difficult or complex. They can accomplish very little relatively 

 along the industrial side. We must relegate to the grammar grades 

 detailed study of forests and their products ; different kinds of wood 

 and their use in manufactures ; the fish, lobster and oyster industries; 

 the large economic relations of birds, insects and plants ; and the 

 greater part of practical or scientific agriculture. 



However, there are definite things that primary nature study can 

 do and can do better than any other subject at any other time in the 

 life of the child. 



It can teach the children to know and to love the common nature 

 objects, those objects that come so closely into the life of the country 

 child who spends much time out-of-doors. If we were ever in the 

 country when we were children, let us go back to that time. It is 

 spring. We are walking along a path through fields and woods and_ 

 perhaps along a brook. The house dog is with us and we stop to 

 throw sticks and stones for him to bring back to us. We feel the 

 warmth from the sun and the coolness of the breeze ; but we do not 

 think of these. We enter the woods ; we know that there are trees 

 only because they give shade and because we find nuts and leaves on 

 the ground. We are conscious of little that is very large or very far 

 away from us. But we are keenly conscious of the ground that we 

 are so near — the ground with all its small things to be found and 

 gathered, handled and carried home — and besides, other still more 

 wonderful things, the low-flying birds and butterflies, and in the brook 

 frogs and fish and turtles, very wonderful but perhaps less satisfying 

 because so difficult to possess. 



This gives us our clue as to what nature objects to use in primary 

 grades. There should be some animal study — study of household 

 pets and domestic animals, common birds, a few common insects, 

 fish and frogs, toads and turtles ; but the greater part of the work 

 should be plant study — flowers, fruits, leaves, twigs and buds, and 

 seeds. 



And we are to teach little children to know and to love them. 

 The first is relatively an easy matter, but in regard to the second we 

 must proceed cautiously and criticise our methods and plans search- 

 ingly. For if the child has had any experience outside of the heart 

 of the city, he probably knows these same objects or similar ones and 

 there is already a glamour over them that it would be cruel to dim or 

 take away. And if the child has always lived in the heart of a city 



