1 7 2 THE NA TU RE- STUD Y RE VIE W [ 3 . 6 -sept. , t 9 o 7 



in a day — a larva or maggot. (d) Larva grows from 5 to 7 days; then 

 pupa (cocoon), (e) Pupa from 5 to 7 days; then fly. (/) Thus in 

 from 10 to 14 days a generation of flies is born; and we see how from a 

 few in spring we have swarms in summer, (g) Xo one knows how 

 long a fly lives; probably a month or six weeks. 



The above list of adaptations includes a mammal, a bird, an insect, and 

 a plant. These illustrations are sufficient to show that the general 

 formula has universal validity. 



Further adaptations of the formula to the various animals and plants 

 of the different grades are earnestly solicited from teachers and principals. 



Relation of the Proposed Plan to Observation 



It must not be inferred from the method here described that 

 objective teaching is to be abolished. In the lowest grades, only 

 living things are to be studied, and as far as possible objects that 

 can be brought into the room. 



This is obviously impossible in the case of some animals, as for 

 example, the horse and the cow. Here the model or picture must 

 be employed. 



If the object can be brought into class, models and pictures 

 may be used after the reality has been studied. So also books 

 should be introduced after the thing, to supplement the informa- 

 tion obtained at first hand. 



As many as possible of the facts it is proposed to teach should 

 be observed by the child, under the direction of the teacher. 

 Some information must be taken on the word of another; such, 

 for instance, as the number of eggs a bird or fly lays and the num- 

 ber of days it takes to hatch them. If the instruction is limited 

 to facts that children themselves can observe, it is necessarily 

 incomplete, unsystematic, and largely worthless. The mere 

 presence of the reality is no guarantee that they learn anything 

 worth knowing. 



Professor Bailey has said somewhere, in effect, that nature- 

 study is seeing what we look at and making proper inferences 

 about what we see.- His own pamphlet on "Four Apple Twigs" 

 is an illustration of his definition. The untrained eye sees in 

 those twigs nothing but dead branches. But he reads in the buds 

 and scars a wonderful story of the life and work of the tree. 

 We must not expect children to see as much as Professor Bailey 

 sees, or as the teacher sees, or even as the adult layman sees. The 

 mind sees with what it knows, and children know so little. There- 

 fore, in any case, observation must be supplemented by the more 



