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



means that there can be no fixed schedule appropriate for every 

 school, and it also means an adaptable teacher. The teacher who 

 has secured a definite " outline " from some one is in danger of 

 passing by the most important natural objects within reach of the 

 school. I have seen such an " outline " prepared on the seacoast 

 and used by a teacher in the central west. When it came to the 

 subject of seaweeds, a few miserable things were obtained with 

 much difficulty from the seashore, and the glorious forest with 

 which the school was surrounded was left without observation ! 

 This is an extreme case, but essentially the same thing is common 

 enough. (2) No subject should be pressed too far, for interest 

 may pass into disgust. Watch the pupil, not the outline ! (3) 

 Observation should be directed more towards activity than 

 towards form and structure. It is fundamental in botany that 

 plants be regarded as things alive and at work ; and it is also of 

 far greater interest to a child to watch a plant doing something 

 than to observe form and structure, which in the very nature 

 of things mean nothing to the observer. 



What are appropriate methods? (1) Very definite work, that 

 has already been traversed by the teacher ; for it is confusing and 

 discouraging and disastrous to work at random. Some very 

 definite result must be plainly in sight. (2) Individual work in 

 observation or experiment, which means personal responsibility. 

 (3) Unprejudiced observation, which means that the pupil is not 

 to be told what ought to be seen ; some children are so docile 

 that they never fail to see what they are told to see. (4) Bring- 

 ing together and comparing individual results, a thing of funda- 

 mental importance, for it develops differences in results which 

 must be settled by repetition, shows what is essential in the 

 results and what amount of variation is possible, develops the habit 

 of caution in generalization, and impresses the need and nature of 

 adequate proof. 



What are appropriate results ? ( 1 ) A sustained interest in 

 natural objects and the phenomena of nature. (2) An indepen- 

 dence in observation and conclusion. (3) Some conception as to 

 what an exact statement is. (4) Some conception of what con- 

 stitutes proof; in short, an independent, rational individual, such 

 as the world needs to-day more than anything else. I feel strongly 

 that our educational system lacks efficiency in just this direction, 

 and that continuous training in exact observation and inference. 



