50 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i, 2, march, 1905 



the child. If nature-study fails to aid in bringing about this 

 result, it has no position in the schools which is at all defensible. 

 It is essential, therefore, that there should be a clear-cut con- 

 ception of the significance of the subject from this viewpoint. 

 Its peculiar function is to develop the perceptive powers, and 

 through this development bring the child into an intimate and 

 sympathetic relationship with his surromxlings. This central 

 thought, the real educational purpose of nature-study, has too 

 often been lost in the effort to make the subject the vehicle for 

 carrying information bearing upon an almost endless variety of 

 natural phenomena. In no other subject, perhaps, is there such 

 need to keep constantly in mind the real end in view ; to recognize 

 the fact that it is not necessary to know plants and animals, but 

 that it is through these to develop the perceptive powers so as to 

 bring the child into a broader, a closer and a more sympathetic 

 contact with the world about him. 



If this view of the function of nature-study is correct, several 

 conclusions necessarily follow. One of these bears upon the 

 amount of work, which as a rule has been and is far too great. 

 Indeed from any viewpoint the most cursory consideration shows 

 this to be true when the youth of the child, the limitations of 

 time, the other school work, and the over-burdened teacher are 

 taken into account. The amount of work must be adapted to the 

 capacity of the average child under the average conditions and 

 this adaptation can be brought about in most cases only by largely 

 reducing the amount of required or suggested work. 



A second conclusion bears upon the material suitable for nature 

 work. If the work be reduced in amount, there are manifold 

 and patent reasons why the work touching plants and animals 

 should be retained, the reduction therefore being brought about 

 by the dropping of certain other subjects. This is certainly true 

 for the earlier school years', whatever may be said in favor of dif- 

 ferent and more varied material for the advanced grades. 

 Nothing appeals so strongly to the young child as life, and when 

 life is associated with color and movement the appeal is all but 

 irresistible. Changes in temperature, the formation of soils, 

 the effects of erosion, and a host of other phenomena of great 

 interest and value make no such appeal, do not enter so appar- 

 ently or directly into the child life and can be left with safety until 

 a later school period. The only objection to such a reduction of 



