1 64 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE W [ 3 : c-sbft., i 9 o 7 



frequently, of the novitiate at least, than excellence of judgment. 

 It is lack of this training that exposes the high school and college 

 graduate to the charge of impracticability. There is no dearth of 

 training in memory, reasoning and the formation of judgments, 

 but little or no training is given on first-hand acquisition of the 

 sense percepts upon which these depend. 



Not alone does nature-study and the later science work afford 

 superior opportunity for sensory training but it gives an unex- 

 celled opportunity for drill in the complete thought process, the 

 formation of judgments on the basis of sense percepts which the 

 student himself has secured. In most school subjects the judg- 

 ments which we call upon the student to make are formed from 

 borrowed concepts not from those that he builds for himself. 

 Perhaps the judgments themselves are reasoned out for him and 

 he is required merely to give his assent or to simply memorize 

 them. In every-day life, however, the situations which we must 

 successfullv meet or face ignominious failure are not enigmas with 

 half the explanation written upon them, but problems which we 

 must master from the elemental sense percepts, to the final 

 judgments expressive of the solution. This is impossible in some 

 valuable studies because original sources are inaccessible. But it 

 is the glory of nature-study to deal with the very commonplace. 



Nature-study has a still more significant content. The nature- 

 study movement is no evanescent, educational fad, but a perma- 

 nent product of fundamental forces operative in the intellectual 

 and social evolution of the race. In recent years this evolution 

 has been so rapid as to amount almost to a revolution. It has 

 multiplied schools, increased attendance and remodelled courses. 

 It has opened the schools not alone to the favored few but to the 

 ambitious masses. It has established the polytechnic and agri- 

 cultural schools, introduced manual training and commercial 

 courses, often replaced the classical by the science course and 

 developed the demand for nature-study. These significant 

 changes indicate that the schools are trying to serve a new con- 

 stituency. 



A century ago the average child might not go to school beyond 

 his tender years. He was required as a producer. Now mighty 

 steam and deft electricity have supplanted human brawn and 

 supple fingers and freed the little laborer from the slavery of com- 

 merce. The industrial revolution produced by the change of 



