182 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [ 2 : S -may, 1906 



VI. The Method 



I take it that method is the term used to designate the steps by 

 which we try to accomplish the aim we set ourselves when we enter 

 upon school work along any line. In the light of what has been said 

 heretofore, we see that our method must be an attempt to bring the 

 child into loving and sympathetic relationship with nature by first- 

 hand attention to nature herself, especially in the world of plant and 

 animal life. 



Now it is axiomatic that first-hand study of nature requires that we 

 go to nature in her own haunts. Reading in books will not do; class- 

 room discussion will not do; pictures and museum specimens will not 

 do. It is not usually feasible to bring nature into the schoolroom as 

 the working plan, so the excursion to nature and the activity with 

 nature is the ideal method, especially the excursion or activity by the 

 teacher and pupils together. This method presents many difficulties 

 of application; but I say emphatically that that teacher and school 

 will most successfully attain the end of true nature-study which col- 

 lectively or individually goes out to nature in her haunts, or engages 

 in activities concerned with some of her forms. Watch a bird build- 

 ing its nest or feeding its young; note its bright colors; listen to its 

 song; feed it in time of want; tame it if you can. Find the flower 

 in its wild habitat; learn its name; observe it from season to season; 

 try to grow it in your garden; protect it from ruthless harm. Employ 

 intellect, feelings and will upon nature, and loving and sympathetic 

 fellowship will result. 



VII. Results 



The accomplishment of our own aim in nature-study will have many 

 important results, and it is well, I think, to call attention to some of 

 these. 



A fellowship with nature such as I have been talking about will 

 give to the one possessing it a broader and deeper life than can be 

 had by anyone who finds attractions only in man and in his works— 

 in the artificialities of life. 



It will lead many to choose country life who would otherwise go to 

 the cities to find failure and eke out a miserable existence, unhealthy 

 and unhappy, there. 



It will furnish to many an avocation which will tend to keep them 

 occupied and away from temptation and vice. The man who has 



