240 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [2 : 7 -oct., ,906 



striking and distinctive markings of a species at first sight and then 

 fill in details as occasion permits. 



The methods suggested here or elsewhere are of secondary import- 

 ance when compared with the teacher's own attitude towards nature. 

 Many teachers will attend lectures on nature-study, take nature-study 

 lessons and study nature-study books, but never study nature herself, 

 or only incidentally. Let the teacher attack some side of nature-study 

 herself as independently as possible, the birds or flowers of neighbor- 

 ing fields or parks, the common trees or some order of insects. Let 

 her persevere until the first somewhat difficult and discouraging steps 

 are taken and the first dozen birds, flowers or trees learned, and new 

 ones will be located with comparative ease. Then she will have done 

 more to make herself a good teacher of nature-study than all the books 

 and all the lectures in the country could have done, without this" 

 action on her part. Of course it is understood that learning a bird 

 does not mean merely learning its name, but learning its habits, its 

 song, and if possible the peculiarities of those individuals most easily 

 accessible. 



A teacher who has not enough interest in nature to study some phase 

 of it for herself can not succeed in interesting children in nature. Let 

 her become an enthusiast and her pupils will take as naturally to nature- 

 study as they will to skipping the rope or playing ball. 



The author has given nature lessons to many teachers who say they 

 have not the time to workup the material for themselves and that a 

 good lesson or lecture saves them so much time. There is truth in 

 this, but the tendency is to lean too much on this sort of help and to 

 look at the work clone as merely preparation for routine drudgery 

 rather than an addition to personal culture. Help enough to enable 

 her to help herself intelligently is all the assistance an earnest teacher 

 should seek. 



The children will enjoy learning with you. The author has done 

 some of his best work in bird study with boys who knew only a little 

 less then he. Together we worked out our problems and solved our 

 difficulties. They not only learned but learned how to learn, and the 

 latter was by far the greater gain. 



