dickbrson] NATURE-STUDY IN CITY PRIMARY SCHOOLS 105 



universe that no amount of mere observation of the facts would ever 

 give and that is more important than the whole category of facts 

 about nature. 



But to go back to our most important aim in the primary nature- 

 study; we cannot gain permanent results, we cannot make the child 

 really know and love nature by even the most ideal of isolated obser- 

 vation lessons. There must be continued observation, companion- 

 ship with growing, active plants and animals. It is what the child 

 can do with the plant or animal or what the plant or animal does — it is 

 action in one or the other, or best of all in both — that is most inter- 

 esting to the child. This desire for activity is, when guided, our 

 most valuable ally in teaching nature-study. For plants and animals 

 are alive and active and are not only doing something all of the time 

 but are doing such wonderful and unlooked for things that study of 

 them is a fascination; and secondly, all of them bear more or less vital 

 relations to man so that there is usually some profitable thing that the 

 child can do with them. 



How are we going to do anything of the sort in the schoolroom ? 

 Some of it very easily. Let the children study the activity of small 

 fish, of the frog and the toad, and the turtle for two or more weeks at 

 a time in the spring or fall. (These are kept with no difficulty in aquaria 

 or small moss-houses). Let the children have common house-plants 

 to take care of and watch grow, geraniums, begonias, fuchsias, etc. 

 But best of all let them grow plants from seeds, all sorts of seeds but 

 especially those that you know will come most closely into their experi- 

 ence and interest — flower seeds such as morning glories, nasturtiums 

 and bachelor buttons; tree seeds, especially those of fruit trees and 

 nut trees; and perhaps seeds of the common vegetables, peas, beans, 

 corn and squash. Let the children plant them, take care of them 

 and rear them to their flower or seed periods in many cases. 



If practicable let them watch the development of the frog, sala- 

 mander or toad eggs. Nothing in schoolroom nature-study can inspire 

 more reverence for life than the continued thoughtful watching of the 

 growing seed of flower or tree or the developing egg of the frog. 



We see that something can be done in the continuous observation of 

 plants and animals in the schoolroom, but there is so much of this 

 observation that cannot be done because of existing conditions that 

 if the work stops here, nature-study falls very far short of doing its 

 full work. The school must begin the work and set the example 

 with such enthusiasm and force that the impulse will be carried out 

 and beyond into the home. 



