stevens] NATURE-STUDY AXD SCIEXCE lj 



Another fundamental distinction between science and nature- 

 study is that the latter as recognized by the great majority of its 

 promoters is a study of natural objects, not books. Science may 

 be a study of either books or natural objects. The essence of 

 science is the subject-matter. The essence of nature-study is the 

 method. While the subject-matter of nature-study varies almost 

 endlessly, its method is its characteristic. Vary the method be- 

 yond certain limits and it is no longer nature-study. Nature- 

 study and science are in these attributes distinguishable. 



Nature-study is not science, it is none of the arts. It differs 

 from both in motive. Science has for its end the acquiring and 

 teaching of facts, laws, or principles ; an art to do or accomplish 

 or construct. Nature-study does neither primarily. It may do 

 both extensively though incidentally. The function of nature- 

 study is to increase interest, to awaken the power of observation, 

 and to open the eyes of the child so that he may see the beauties 

 of nature that abound unrecognized about him. The difference 

 in motive between the sciences or arts and nature-study is there- 

 fore fundamental. 



The field of nature-study is broader than that of any other 

 subject in the school curriculum. The motive of nature-study 

 precludes dogmatic selection of any specific subject-matter from 

 this field. That subject-matter is best which in the hands of a 

 given teacher with a given school and environment will arouse 

 wholesome abiding interest in nature. The value of systematic 

 outlines is therefore less than in the case of the information 

 subjects. Outlines are valuable for their suggestiveness chiefly. 

 They may become stumbling blocks if misunderstood to be rigid 

 guides. 



A subject so broad is capable of division and special suggestive 

 nature-study courses may be devised to meet the needs of special 

 conditions : agricultural for the farming- sections, strongly flavored 

 with rocks for the mining regions, abounding in marine topics 

 for the seaboard, and painfully elementary for the tenement dweller. 



Nature-study is now in its embryonic condition. Its future 

 development must see its differentiation ; but the spirit, method 

 and motive must remain or it will either abort or degenerate into 

 elementary science, a possibility which no enthusiastic lover of 

 nature will admit. 



