68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lack of facility in expressing his ideas. In his youth he had nO' 

 training worth naming in drawing or in written description. 

 To know and not to know how to express what is known is ques- 

 tionable science. The true scientific method must include ade- 

 quate expression. 



As a rule, such objects are selected for study as will serve for 

 a good drawing (thirty-six rocks and minerals excepted) shells,, 

 crystals, leaves, seeds, seed-vessels, flowers, ferns, mosses, and in- 

 sects including butterflies, moths, crickets, grasshoppers, locusts,, 

 flies, dragon flies, beetles, bees, wasps, and hornets each kind be- 

 ing sufiicient in number to supply each pupil with a specimen. 

 Butterflies emerge from chrysalids and moths from cocoons dis- 

 covered and brought in by the pupils, who draw and describe the 

 various stages of these insect metamorphoses as they see them 

 going on. They have studied in the same way seedlings in suc- 

 cessive stages of growth corn, squash, maple, acorn, etc. each 

 pupil having his own marked pot. 



The school garden contains much available material many 

 varieties of wild asters and golden-rods, spring flowers, fall flow- 

 ers, wild and cultivated, vegetable roots, small patches of wheat, 

 rye, oats, barley, and buckwheat, cucurbitaceous plants, corms^ 

 tubers, bulbs, and ferns. The pupils cultivate the plants, and com- 

 pare, draw, and describe the varieties from notes taken on the 

 ground. 



Once a year, on " public day " in May, the pupils bring in for 

 exhibition their collections of minerals, rocks, shells, woods, in- 

 sects, and pressed plants usually from five to six thousand speci- 

 mens which change from year to year. All the specimens are 

 labeled carefully, classified, and arranged in the large hall on 

 long tables covered with white paper. The best collections have 

 a printed card label accompanying each specimen. 



The work done outside of school in getting these collections 

 together is of great educational value and the natural result of a 

 method suited to the child's condition. It runs neither into hap- 

 hazard channels nor into cast-iron molds. The child, rather than 

 the subject matter, is the focusing point. The principal things 

 sought are the science of his interests and habits of work, and the 

 development of his powers of observation, expression, and self- 

 reliance. 



Many schools in various parts of our country are doing simi- 

 lar work, and in the summaries of such work made accessible ta 

 educators we shall soonest discover a scientific method thorough- 

 ly suited to the needs of elementary schools. Colleges and scien- 

 tific schools have not the points of vantage to make the discovery. 



- 



