THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED TO ALL PHASES OF NATURE-STUDY IN 

 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



Vol. I MARCH,, 1905 No. 2 



EDUCATIONAL VALUES AND AIMS OF NATURE-STUDY 



A SYMPOSIUM BY S. COULTER, H. W. FAIRBANKS and M. A. BIGELOW 



[Editorial Note. — The discussion of the relations of nature-study and 

 natural science opened by the symposium in No. 1 of this journal will 

 doubtless be added to in later papers with other titles or by voluntary con- 

 tributions to the pages devoted to " Discussions and Correspondence." So 

 far as the discussions already published are concerned, it appears that the 

 writers are practically agreed that: (T) nature-study and natural science, 

 viewed from the standpoint of education, should be regarded as decidedly 

 different in that true nature-study lacks the characteristic organization of 

 science; (2) nature-study so distinguished from science is the proper work 

 of the elementary and ungraded schools; and (3) nature-study should be 

 understood as dealing with all phases of nature, physical as well as 

 biological. 



But although it is advocated that nature-study should be without strict 

 scientific organization, there are many suggestions in the first symposium 

 that the writers are looking for some satisfactory educational organization 

 for nature-study. In search of such organization we naturally inquire first 

 into the educational values of our subject and from these formulate the 

 aims or guiding principles for the teaching. Here we are face to face with 

 another fundamental problem ; and, following the plan of the earlier sym- 

 posium, the consideration of the questions involved is from the points of 

 view of several writers. Several contributions to this symposium arrived 

 too late for this issue and will be published later.] 



BY PROFESSOR STANLEY COULTER 

 Purdue University 



It is conceded, in view of the already crowded curricula of the 

 schools and the excessive work laid upon the teachers, that no 

 new subject should be introduced unless it is clearly shown to be 

 necessary to secure the symmetrical intellectual development of 



