144 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i, 4, july 1905 



to the rules and science of the language?" Nature-study is the 

 alphabet and the words of one syllable of agriculture, and that 

 is why the child should begin with nature-study instead of 

 agriculture. 



Another argument has been presented, " Why not make your 

 nature-study along the lines of agriculture solely ; for instance, 

 why should not a child begin nature-study with the cabbage 

 rather than the hepatica." This argument carried out logically 

 would provide recreation for the boy in hoeing corn rather than 

 in playing ball. Many parents in the past have argued thus, and 

 have in consequence driven thousands of splendid boys from the 

 country to the city with a loathing in their souls for the drudgery 

 which seemed to be all there was of farm life. The reason the 

 wild flowers have been selected to begin the nature-study of 

 plants is because every child loves these woodland posies nat- 

 urally, and his happiest hours are those spent gathering them. 

 The very first principle of modern teaching demands that the 

 child's intelligence shall be cultivated along the line of the child's 

 interest. The child loves the hepatica, the jack-in- the-pulpit and 

 the trillium, and is eager to know more about them ; and since 

 the fundamental truths of plant life are quite as true in the case 

 of the wild wood flower as in that of the carrot or the cucumber, 

 why not let the child grow in his knowledge of plant life along 

 his natural path instead of forcing him to knowledge along a 

 channel obstructed by his indifference or dislike. Never yet 

 have we known of a case where a child having gained his knowl- 

 edge of the way a plant lives through studying the plants he loves, 

 has failed to be interested and surprised and delighted to find that 

 the wonderful things he discovered about his wild flower, may be 

 true of the meanest vegetable in the garden, or the purslane which 

 fights with them for ground to stand upon. 



For a like cogent reason gardening is begun with flowers in- 

 stead of vegetables because the young child is more interested in 

 flowers than in anything else that grows. But after the garden 

 work is well begun and the principles of plant-growing are better 

 understood, the interest widens to the vegetable garden naturally. 

 Thus in every phase nature-study at its best begins at the point 

 where the pupil's interest touches the outside world, and from 

 this point widens naturally until it includes his whole environ- 

 ment. 



