1 04 THE ATA TURE-STUD Y RE FIE W [a !3 -march, i 9 o6 



do and how to do it, but never a suggestion of what is to be discov- 

 ered. 



Hut this is not all. Education in any grade demands that a child 

 shall get more from a directed contact with nature than he ever could 

 gain without direction even if he lived with nature. Education de- 

 mands an understanding of the facts observed in so far as the mind 

 of a child can grasp the meanings. The primary child has little 

 power of reason, but even a first grade boy or girl can see relations 

 by analogy with himself in important food and protection questions, 

 and by analogy with various things more or less common in his exper- 

 ience. In this way he knows that the scales are a coat for the small 

 green leaves of the horse-chestnut bud and that they keep out the 

 rain and guard against changes in temperature all winter ; that the 

 tail of the gold-fish has the position and side movement of the rud- 

 der of a boat and so steers the fish. 



Much work of this kind can be done in the third and fourth pri- 

 mary grades and in this way will be begun that action of the mind which 

 if carried on will result in habits of investigation, independence and 

 initiative. In these grades the children can be easily led to see the fit- 

 ness of things even when it does not appeal directly to anything in their 

 own experience. The corn seedling can push itself straight up through 

 the hard soil because it is sharply pointed. The pointed pine tree can 

 grow on mountains in more exposed situations than can the broad-top- 

 ped elm because it has fewer branches and less bulk higher in the 

 wind, and pine tree trunks make good masts for ships because they 

 prove by the situation in which they lived that they are strong and 

 flexible enough to endure the winds at sea. The toad is not supposed 

 to be seen by many of its enemies because its color and markings 

 make it look so greatly like the ground on which its lives. The swal- 

 lows have such long and strong wings that they can fly for hours 

 without resting; their mouths are unusually large, adapted to catch 

 insects while flying. 



Let us never fail in a lesson on any nature subject to give the chil- 

 dren opportunity to think out relations of this sort Most people are 

 satisfied to see that a thing is so, they do not ask, " Why is it so ? " 

 or " How is it so? ' Inspire in the children in every way possible 

 a spirit of inquiry. This is another work that nature-study can do 

 better than any other primary subject. In addition to the mental 

 training that results, the child gains an idea of the fitness of every- 

 thing for its place in the world, an idea of the law and order in the 



