taylor] ORGANIZATION FOR NATURE-STUDY 169 



"facts told;" for a thing cannot properly be said to have been 

 taught until the pupil can adequately express the same. 



A lesson in nature-stud}' usually consists of the enumeration,. 

 by the teacher, of the facts called for. This is true even in cases 

 where the actual object is at hand. When the pupil is asked to 

 reproduce what he has learned, the teacher puts a question calling 

 for a single fact, which the pupil answers with a monosyllable. 

 It does not seem to occur to either teacher or pupil that a child 

 can state more than one fact. It does not occur to teachers, as a 

 rule, that the information about an animal or plant can be woven 

 into a storv, and that a child can reproduce such a story from 

 start to finish as well as he can tell fairy tales and folk stories. 

 The fairy tale can be remembered because there is sequence of 

 time as well as of cause and effect in it. Things proceed in an 

 orderly way. There is a firstly, a secondly, a thirdly; and these 

 steps must follow in the correct order, else the story is ruined. 



Is it possible to organize nature-study facts in such a way that 

 there is sequence and necessary order? The writer ventures to 

 answer this question in the affirmative. 



The following scheme is based on the well-known fact that 

 children are concerned chiefly with the function or use of an 

 object and care little about parts and qualities as such. The 

 latter items are, therefore, considered only in so far as they relate 

 to the mode of living of the animal or plant studied. The plan 

 provides a causal series for nature-study similar to that which we 

 now have in geography in the 5 B and higher grades. The facts 

 are to be presented in story form, and the child is not required to 

 be conscious of the causal series. But if the facts are presented 

 in the manner proposed, they are scientific facts and will not 

 have to be unlearned at a later stage of the child's development. 

 The human relation, which should also be emphasized, is always 

 an incident of the mode of living of a plant or animal. For 

 instance, the silk-worm, in the course of his life-history, spins 

 a cocoon, which happens to have great commercial value. The 

 potato-bug likes the leaves of the potato plant for food, hence, in 

 a single vear the insect destroyed potatoes valued at $73,000,000 

 in the State of Illinois alone. When the child recites, he should 

 give the facts in story form, and should group all items under the 

 two heads, care of self and care of young. An animal or plant 

 has two things to do in this world, and only two — he must make a 



