THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED TO ALL PHASES OF NATURE-STUDY IN SCHOOLS 



Vol. 2 APRIL, 1906 No. 4 



TRAINING TEACHERS OF NATURE-STUDY 



A Series of Reports from many Normal Schools and Colleges 



It is universally recognized now that the future development of 

 nature-study depends upon special preparation of teachers. In the 

 early clays of nature-study in any locality it may be very unorganized 

 and informal, but sooner or later there comes a time when local edu- 

 cators inquire seriously whether nature-study is successful. You 

 know the result — nature -study has in many cases been dropped from 

 the program of schools. The cause of this is usually stated to 

 be the inability of average teachers to handle nature-study. This is 

 a quite satisfactory explanation to any one who has visited many 

 schools and noted that most commonly nature-study is being taught 

 either by teachers lacking both knowledge and interest, or by teach- 

 ers having interest and enthusiasm but without knowledge of subject- 

 matter and methods needed if critical observers are to be convinced 

 that nature-study is worthy of an established place in the school pro- 

 gram. Nature-study can no longer safely be left to teachers who de- 

 pend upon " loving " nature instead of upon a thorough training in 

 subject-matter and methods. It is therefore important that train- 

 ing schools study more carefully the problem of preparing teachers 

 for efficient work in nature-study. As a contribution to later compar- 

 ative summary of present practices in American training schools we 

 present this month a series of brief reports from various institutions. 

 Other schools which are known to be doing work in this line have not 

 yet replied to circular letters and to the request in the editorial notes 

 in the January issue. We hope to receive more reports in time for 

 the September issue, which will be printed early in August. 



No plan for order has been observed in arranging the following 

 reports, except that normal schools are first and a few colleges last. 



M. A. B. 



