downing] ME THODS IN NA TL r RE- STUDY 225 



have observed: that kitty loves to sleep in a warm nook, evades 

 the cold, walks gingerly in the snow, treads softly on padded feet, 

 stalks her prey, springs upon it with quick leaps, eats deliberately. 

 Now let the children learn by reading of the habits of the lion, 

 tiger, puma — the great cat tribe of the tropics — and they will 

 speedily reach the conclusion that little pussy stands for a whole 

 family whose habits and structures, eminently fit them for a suc- 

 cessful struggle for existence. The dog, on the contrary, the 

 children can tell, loves a frolic in the snow, trails his prey by 

 scent and chases it down, his joyous bark drawing into the chase 

 all other dogs within hearing. He eats in gulps with ominous 

 growls. Next learn the habits of the wolf tribe and the pupils 

 realize that the dog is a stranger in their midst, a relative of the 

 wolves, hunting in packs over the dreary wastes of the cold north. 

 (The thoughtful pupil will some day demand adequate explana- 

 tion of this difference in geographical distribution.) These results 

 may be achieved by a succession of questions w r hich will in turn 

 generate more. Why are the dog's claws dull while kitty's are 

 sharp ? What is the color of the dog's eye and why? What is 

 the significance of the cat's slit-shaped pupil? Questions like 

 these will occur to the alert teacher and w r ill serve all along to 

 arouse independent thinking, for they are not stereotyped problems 

 with the answers in the back of the book. The successful teacher 

 must needs be an expert cross-examiner. Questions are the guide 

 of the willing pupil, the goad of the stupid. 



My illustration has sufficed now if it has suggested the method 

 by which facts are first observed, then remembered and woven 

 into the solution of problems. The drift of the whole will be 

 apparent to the person who understands current notions of evolu- 

 tion. When, in later years of study, the fossil evidence of the 

 common ancestry of the dog and cat families is encountered, it 

 will seem like the final chapter of an interesting continued story. 



Permit brief illustration in another field. Suppose the nature- 

 study is elementary physiography. At first the children are 

 asked to see clearly the action of the common agencies, the rain 

 and wind, rivers, lakes, et cetera. They are not told it all, but 

 are led by careful questions to see it for themselves. Disintegra- 

 tion and construction are watched year by year, as river bank or 

 shore line gradually wears away or new deposits are made. That 

 these deposits are stratified occasional cuttings will show the 



