122 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i, 3. may 1905 



THE TIME REQUIRED FOR NATURE-STUDY 



BY S B. SINCLAIR, PH.D. 

 Vice-principal of Normal School, Ottawa, Canada 



One of the most serious objections urged against the intro- 

 duction of nature-study into public schools is that there is " no 

 time for it." 



Let us consider one hour per week the amount of time required. 

 One of the most historic responsible pronouncements on the sub- 

 ject is that made in 1892 in the report made by the famous Com- 

 mittee of Ten, where the natural history section recommended 

 that " No less than one hour per week, divided into at least two 

 periods,' should be devoted throughout the whole school course 

 below the high school to the study of plants and animals ; that in 

 this study no text-books should be used, and that these observa- 

 tion lessons should, as far as possible, be made the basis of or 

 correlated with work in language, drawing and literature." 



Twenty years ago the writer of this article made a somewhat 

 careful observation and study of a number of schools in the United 

 States, England and France, in which courses in nature-study 

 similar to those recently prescribed for Ontario schools had been 

 for years and still are in operation. 



Since that time he has had opportunity for more extended 

 observation and experiment, and his opinion is that an average of 

 one hour of school time per week for nature-study during the 

 entire public school course forms a satisfactory working hypoth- 

 esis. Many of the most successful teachers of nature-study give 

 but few set lessons on the subject and vary the time and emphasis 

 to accord with external conditions. For example, in the spring 

 when Nature seems to awaken from her winter sleep, more time 

 may be devoted to the subject than during the winter months. 

 Then too it is necessary to adjust the lessons to the schoolroom 

 conditions. For example, in a large rural school with many 

 classes in charge of but one teacher, most of the work must be 

 taken with combined classes or incidentally in connection with 

 other subjects. Speaking generally, one half-hour lesson per 

 week may profitably be devoted in every class to some definite, 

 sequential, subject of investigation, and the other half to general 

 unrelated observation made as occasion demands. For example, 



