154 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i, 4. July 1905 



NATURE^STUDY AND ITS RELATION TO ENGLISH 



BY WM. M. HEINEY 



Superintendent of Schools, Raton, New Mexico 



In the multiplicity of books, charts and devices for instruction in 

 nature, we are losing sight of nature-study, and are diverting the 

 time and purpose, so intended, to reading and talking about nature- 

 study, thus defeating the end which it, above all else, was intended 

 to subserve. 



Nature-study came to us as the maid of honor, or at least the 

 devoted companion, of the laboratory method, which has so en- 

 trenched itself in the sciences of the secondary schools and col- 

 leges. And while the latter has taken extreme ground, nature- 

 study has become perfunctory, or worse, it has encased itself in 

 a shower of devices and books. The teacher goes before her 

 classes with these, and reads or talks to them about the subject, 

 always with much joy to them, and sometimes with more or less 

 interest to herself ; in scarcely an exceptional case, though, does 

 she grasp the very value it was, and is, intended to bestow. This 

 failure is not the fault of the teacher, but the error of those who 

 have felt called to write and publish books on this subject of grow- 

 ing popularity. 



Well, to the remedy : Wash off the slate and begin over. Put 

 aside your devices, your nature-story books, and adopt the labora- 

 tory method and the field practice. 



If you can control your pupils when out of the room, take 

 them to the school-yard, the mountain side or the forests, and 

 there see and study nature as she is. But do not look for good re- 

 sults from your pupils romping among or running over nature. 

 Romping and running are of inestimable value to children, but 

 cannot fill the place of teaching. The youthful, growing and 

 grasping mind must be first directed to the little points of interest, 

 and therefore, after the turbulent vitality has somewhat subsided, 

 after a season of romping and play, call attention to the charac- 

 teristics of trees, weeds, rocks, animals, birds and insects. Not 

 all at one time, nor at one outing. One specimen may be quite 

 enough for each child on a single excursion, and better, as a rule, 

 if all study the same specimen at the same time. 



This, however, is merely suggestive. You will probably get 



