244 THE XA TURE-S TUD 1 ' KE I 'IE IV [a : 7 -„ C t., 1906 



NATURE-STUDY 



BY S. ARTHUR JOHNSON 

 Pnfessor in Colorado State Agricultural College • 



It will be impossible in the time allotted to discuss this subject in 

 detail, so I have contented myself with presenting outlines. 



"Nature-study is primarily the simple observational study of com- 

 mon natural objects and processes for the sake of personal acquaint- 

 ance with the things which appeal to human interest directly and 

 independently of the generalizations of organized science." (M. A. 

 Bigelow in Nature-Study Review, Jan., '05) 



In the beginning of this discussion permit me to express the belief 

 that the subject is well defined in its' title. The very mention of 

 nature-study without further explanation has had the electrical effect 

 of a magic wand, both in pedagogical and home circles. Evidently 

 the idea, however vague it may be, and in spite of the multitude of 

 phases it presents to individual minds, has in it a germ which will. 

 we hope, conquer some human ill. Around this thought has clustered 

 a host of ideas and about it has grown up a literature which cannot 

 long escape being incarcerated behind the bars of Barnum's circus. 

 Taken in toto it is the only living "what is it" of this end of the 

 century. What, then, is the real kernel of the subject? Is it not to 

 be found in the words of our text, "the common natural objects which 

 appeal to human interest?" This interest may be scientific, educa- 

 tional, utilitarian or aesthetic, but it must be human. 



If this assertion is correct, will it not help us to unravel some of the 

 knotty problems of method and subject-matter? 



The writer once asked a zoology teacher where to begin teaching 

 the subject. He replied, "with whatever you have at hand." Hux- 

 ley for a number of years taught zoology students by beginning with 

 the single celled animals and proceeding to the more complex. This 

 method seemed right in view of the science and commended itself 

 from the standpoint of theory, but the practice was not so successful. 

 He found that the moment a student put his eye to the microscope 

 he was introduced to a world with which he had had no previous 



• Read before the Northeastern Colorado Teachers' Association, Greeley, 

 April 13, 1906, 



