Fairbanks] NATURE-STUDY AND SCIENCE 5 



For the first four years of school, that is, throughout the pri- 

 mal'}- period, nature-study and geography are practically identical. 

 Theoretically, however, we may distinguish " home lore " from a 

 geographic treatment of the home and its surroundings. Above 

 the fourth grade nature-study and geography diverge in practice, 

 although to make the most of both subjects, lessons in one should 

 be arranged as far as possible with reference to lessons in the 

 other. 



Nature-study calls for action on the part of the pupil. He 

 should discover the meaning of facts for himself, and not ordi- 

 narily go to the teacher or to books. His own experience should 

 form the basis of what he acquires. 



There should be a gradual shifting of emphasis in nature-study 

 throughout the elementary school. The distinction between na- 

 ture-study and science is most marked in the lower grades. Here 

 the emphasis is laid upon the side of interest, upon the training 

 of the mind and senses, and the materials studied should be from 

 the home environment. In the more advanced portion of the 

 course, although the subject should still be developed from the 

 side of interest, there must come an increasing use of the reason- 

 ing powers, and a greater value attached to the choice and use 

 of material. 



With the beginning of the secondary-school period method is 

 more exact, there is a deeper inquiry into causes and relations, 

 and we may be said to have reached the scientific study of nature. 



There is no break in the development of the powers of the child 

 between the kindergarten and the college, and the lessons in 

 nature-study, beginning with the home region, must be graded to 

 suit the expanding capacities. Nature-study must blend into 

 science study with no break between school periods. 



The pupil should come to the secondary school with a keen 

 interest in the study and observation of natural phenomena, and 

 if the work in the latter school is not too ambitious, he does not 

 have to unlearn upon reaching the college a mass of pseudo- 

 science taught him when he was too immature to comprehend it 

 properly. 



Nature-study should give primarily that training which the sav- 

 age child acquires, but should carry it much farther. The savage 

 child acquires an untechnical knowledge of wood-craft, of the 

 habits and characteristics of the birds and animals, of the signs 



