58 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i. 2, march, 1905 



is evident enough, but whether it actually does supply it is an 

 open question. The statements of its purpose range from culti- 

 vation of a sentimental love for nature to training in habits of 

 exact observation and inference. When to this confused state- 

 ment of purpose there is added the fact that it has been thrust 

 upon a host of unwilling and unprepared teachers, it is no wonder 

 that " nature-study " is an ill-defined, inchoate thing, the despair 

 of the primary teacher and the joke of the scientific fraternity. 

 And yet, its purpose is sound, and it must outgrow its ill-defined 

 beginnings. It is certainly a great problem, to be solved by 

 extensive experiment rather than by preconceived notions. I am 

 quite prepared, therefore, to find that some of the suggestions I 

 am about to make will be disapproved by experience. 



In the outset it is well to state the purpose of nature-study as 

 clearly as possible ; not its incidental advantages, but its domi- 

 nant motive. Naturally it is just here that we may part com- 

 pany, but the dominant motive must determine the method. In 

 my judgment the great function of nature-study in elementary 

 education is to supplement what may be called the conventional 

 education. The latter of necessity compels attention to certain 

 abstractions of language and numbers that are not of paramount 

 interest to the pupil at the time. At the same time, the child 

 possesses what I have called " tentacles of inquiry " that are ex- 

 tended towards natural objects. Too frequently a strictly con- 

 ventional education atrophies these tentacles through disuse, and 

 when later in life the opportunity for work in science presents 

 itself, there is no response, for loss of interest has followed loss 

 of power. I believe that this benumbing effect of the exclusively 

 conventional education upon the natural interest in observing has 

 much to do with the small proportion of college students at- 

 tracted to the laboratories. What I have called the conventional 

 education is necessary, but it needs to be supplemented by nature- 

 study in order that the tentacles of inquiry may remain func- 

 tional. To me the keeping functional natural powers is the fun- 

 damental purpose of nature-study in elementary schools, that later 

 in education and later in life the pupil may not be robbed of oppor- 

 tunity and enjoyment. If this purpose be sound, the methods of 

 nature-study are to be judged by their success in fulfilling it. 



This leads first to certain criticisms of much work in nature- 

 studv that I have observed. How extensively these criticisms 



