14 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i, i. jan. 1905 



V 



BY M. A. BIGELOW 



Teachers College, Columbia University 



The term nature-study has come into common use to designate 

 ( 1 ) various phases of teaching about nature in common schools, 

 and (2) popular study of natural history outside of schools by 

 either children or adults. In both these cases the term has been 

 commonly limited to the biological aspect of nature, and both the 

 school and popular phases of nature-study are quite similar in the 

 subject-matter and in the general aims and methods of study. 

 We may, therefore, discuss nature-study for elementary schools 

 with the understanding that so far as general principles are con- 

 cerned the discussion will apply equally well to school or popular 

 nature-study as these together are contrasted with natural science 

 of the high schools and colleges. 



What should be the nature-study for the elementary school, 

 and what its relation to natural-science study in the higher 

 schools? As the term nature-study etymologically suggests and 

 as current practice indicates, the subject for the lower school deals 

 with the same groups of natural materials which give the basis to 

 the natural-science work of the higher schools. Is this paral- 

 lelism simply another duplication in our educational system ? If 

 so, such duplication requires strong defense. Or is the nature- 

 study simply a translation of elementary science into " words of 

 one syllable " in adaptation to the capacities of very young pupils? 

 Or is nature-study in some striking respect different from the 

 natural sciences of the higher schools? These are fundamental 

 questions which so far in the progress of the nature-study move- 

 ment have not received the general attention which they deserve. 



In the beginning of our discussion we must clearly define what 

 we understand by natural science in the strict use of the word 

 science. According to Karl Pearson, in his " Grammar of Sci- 

 ence," " the classification of facts and the formation of absolute 

 judgments upon the basis of this classification essentially sums up 

 the aim and method of modern science. . . . The classification of 

 facts, the recognition of their sequence and relative significance, 

 is the function of science." Mivart, in his " Groundwork of 

 Science," refers to science as " ordered and systematic knowl- 

 edge." These agree essentially with the familiar, short and gen- 



