ANDERS in I 



NA TURE-STUDY AS A X EDUCA TION 1 09 



an abnormal growth of the craving for amusement and excitement which has 

 threatened at times to break up society altogether." 



A second value of nature-study is that it developes the power of 

 reason. One learns to generalize from the particular and to make 

 critical comparison. The whole subject of adaptations comes in here 

 and appeals strongly to the child. Bills and beaks and teeth and 

 feet and tails take on new interest when one grasps the fact that they 

 are to serve some special need. Nature-study leads to faith in 

 causality which involves the belief that every phenomenon is linked 

 with preceding factors. The child is freed from superstitions; and 

 bats that cause your hair to fall out, and toads that cause warts, and 

 deviTs-darning-needles that sew up your ear if you ever told a lie, 

 lose their terrors and become objects of interest and perhaps com- 

 panionship. 



In addition to the development of the power of reason which 

 should be the second aim of the teacher of nature-study, we may 

 look with assurance for many valuable results which are by-products. 

 In the past one or another of the by-products has too often been 

 mistaken for the main object. This was especially true at first when 

 it was claimed that the greatest gain to be derived from the study of 

 natural objects was the increased power of observation. This 

 increase is a natural result; one looks at the things in which he is 

 interested, and the more things one is interested in, and the more he 

 is interested in some one thing, the more he sees. "It is active see- 

 ing, not passive looking, which constitutes observation," says Pro- 

 fessor Ganong. The result should culminate in visualization — the 

 power to reproduce subjectively that which has been seen objectively. 

 Instruction can never take the place of observation. The compara- 

 tive value of the two methods is shown in the following incident which 

 occurred in a school in the State of Missouri: 



The nature-teacher said to the third-grade class, "Children, I 

 want you to watch a spider and see if you can learn something about 

 it that you did not know before. Then I would like you to write 

 down whatever you find out and bring it to me." The next day 

 Locke Sawyer brought in the following to his teacher: "Onct I 

 sawn a spider spin his web. He span it on the winder-pain. I 

 watched him as clost as I could. He went along in front and spun 

 behind." Here is the real thing — visualization; one sees the spider 

 'going along in front and spinning behind.' But the delighted teacher 

 was young and carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment, she 



