,.,hkson] NATURE-STUDY 247 



of communication has not been established. In nature-study the 

 child must be the center. 



Time forbids that we should do more than mention the factors in 

 the course of study. All of the previous discussion will mould and 

 limit what may be suggested here. 



A complete course of study extending from the primary to the 

 high school would be eminently desirable, and such may be ultimately 

 possible in general broad outlines with certain conditions, and in 

 limited localities. Some of the fields of nature-study bend more 

 readily, into such an outline than others. Such, for instance, would 

 be the realm of physics. In most biological lines, however, a modi- 

 fication must be followed. 



The teacher facing the necessity of teaching nature-study would do 

 well to make a preliminary survey of the field. This completed, the 

 second step would be the selection of one or more problems. Much 

 of the success will depend upon the care and wisdom of this action. 

 The problem must be one that is worth while, one that has sufficient 

 content to stimulate thought and interest. It must lead somewhere 

 and the end must be worth the journey. Few adults would be con- 

 tent to hunt needles in a hay stack and I see no reason why children 

 should be employed in that pursuit. Much of our nature-study 

 results in the gathering together of quantities of heterogenous material 

 which have neither beginning nor end, except in the waste basket, 

 and would have served the world better had it. been returned to the 

 soil by the action of the elements. It would be better to study one 

 plant from the germination of the seed to fruition than the compara- 

 tive germination of twenty different kinds of seed. 



This implies, of course, considerable time and preparation on the 

 part of the already overburdened teacher, but, after all, it is not the 

 number of lessons but their content that is of real value. One good 

 lesson a month is of more worth than two each week which are 

 "frazzled out" at both ends and so weak in the middle that they will 

 not bear the weight of a pointed question. 



In this connection we should mention the animal story. There is 

 no objection to entertaining the scholars at times in this manner. 

 The serious trouble with it that it is too easy. We must not deceive 

 ourselves with the notion that this is true nature-study unless these 

 stories have a direct bearing on the problem in hand. 



In all our work we must seek to train in habits of exact observa- 



