266 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i, 6, nov. 1905 



FACTS DISCOVERED BY CHILDREN 1 



[Editorial Note. — As a contribution to the discussion, which this inter- 

 esting and important topic deserves, we print below some paragraphs which, 

 by permission, we take from a letter by Marion H. Carter, the author of the 

 hi ink referred to in the July issue.] 



The book-review containing my statement that " to-day it is almost 

 beyond the bounds of human possibility that a child should discover an 

 unknown fact in the sciences,'* distinctly stated that the guide is in- 

 tended for children of the 4th, 5th and 6th grades, city schools. I used 

 the word " children " to refer to ages in those grades and not to " high- 

 school pupils," which Mr. Cockerell specifies in saying he does not 

 see why they (the high-school pupils) should not be able to gather 

 the observations, " acting always in a cooperative manner and under 

 direction.'' I used the phrase in the common acceptation of com- 

 mon language in connection with the average possibility of the aver- 

 age child. And as such I trust it has been read by most readers, 

 and that no one has supposed that I referred to the boy genius, or to 

 a marvellous teacher acting on a miraculous opportunity. As the 

 statement stands, it is, I believe, irrefutable under the law of prob- 

 ability. 



When my critic advances as his own idea of " opportunity " that 

 there are at the present moment " hundreds of species of bees and 

 wasps nesting in and about New York," I reply that I have lived 

 eight years in New York and never within my recollection have I 

 seen either a bee or a wasp flying about loose. Yet my opportunities, 

 abilities, interests, desires and intentions are in the matter of bees 

 and wasps assumably far beyond that of any twelve-year-old, except- 

 ing always the boy genius interested in wasps and bees. 



It may be pertinent, and of interest to those for whom the infant- 

 discovery fetish is still persistent to state that in nearly twenty years 

 as a teacher of all grades (seven as head of the Science Department 

 of the New York Training School where over a thousand pupils, 

 already high school graduates, passed through my hands) I have 

 never known one to make any original discovery; nor one who even 

 seemed competent at the time and with the materials at hand to 

 make a discovery. 



The sole exception in nearly three thousand former pupils was a 

 boy of ten in a suburban school. He was called an " odd genius " 

 in school, and he did discover by himself a great number of facts 



1 See discussion by T. D. A. Cockerell in this journal Vol. I, No. 4. July, 

 page 163. 



