coulter] VALUES AXD AIMS OF NATURE-STUDY 5 I 



work and a confining' of the material in large measure to plants 

 and animals will be found to have its origin in the belief that 

 nature-study is a device for imparting information rather than 

 a means for developing power. 



A further conclusion is, that in presentation there must be a 

 close adaptation to the intellectual development of the child, the 

 methods employed emphasizing the work of the child and very 

 much reducing the importance of those ordinary bureaus of infor- 

 mation, the teacher and the book. Briefly stated nature-study 

 has for its purposes the development, or at least the keeping func- 

 tional, of certain powers of the child ; not to give the teacher an 

 additional opportunity for talking or as a means for the exploita- 

 tion of books. The methods should be in every case such as to 

 give the child this training. 



Still another conclusion, if this view be correct, and one of 

 great importance, is that the work of the various grades must 

 be more closely related and that the work of each grade must have 

 underlying it some definite pedagogic purpose. The fragmen- 

 tary and illogical courses now offered under the head of nature- 

 study show how little real thought has been given to this phase 

 of the subject. The vast amount and range of suggested work 

 merely serve to emphasize the conclusion that much may be done 

 to make nature-study an efficient working tool in the schools by 

 arranging a logically progressive scheme of study for each grade. 

 The work as outlined for each year should have some definite 

 intellectual end in view, and this should be directly connected with 

 the purpose of the work in the year preceding and following. In 

 the absence of such carefully wrought-out courses the work in 

 nature-study must of necessity be fragmentary and unsatisfactory. 

 At some future time it is the hope of the writer to present briefly 

 a discussion of various intellectual centers about which the work 

 of the grades may be grouped. 



To summarize very briefly, the materials of nature-study are 

 incidental, its intellectual purpose is the supreme thing. If it 

 becomes an efficient means of securing a symmetrical intellectual 

 development, there must exist a definite conception of its functions 

 and limitations. The amount of work presented must be much 

 reduced and the method of presentation carefully adapted to the 

 child's mental development. Direct observation of nature must 

 take the place of much time now taken by the teacher, and the 



