256 THE NA TURE-S TUD Y RE VIE W 



13 : 9~ DEC, 1907- 



of the separate sciences, and hence this new attitude must be 

 recognized in deciding upon a logical selection and presentation 

 of materials. 



The above statement seems to be essentially true as to the 

 general attitude toward nature of average children, but it must 

 be recognized that in any given group of children of the same age 

 and same grade of advancement, different individuals will hold 

 in mind quite different values as determining their interest. 

 Nature-study critics sometimes attempt to determine whether 

 children's interests are in those phases of nature that are educa- 

 tional, aesthetic, economic and industrial, or ethical and religious, 

 and doubtless if we could but find the truth we should find some 

 of these values more nearly universal with children than are 

 others. In determining the general attitude toward nature, 

 however, we find that it is not reducible to any single value. 

 For example, it has been suggested that in the study of the topic 

 "water" one pupil, an older daughter of a washer-woman, sees 

 most prominently its relation to solutions and cleansing power; 

 another who is interested in machines sees its relation to steam 

 and propelling force; one who is beginning to be interested in 

 chemistry thinks of the water's H-2-Oness; the agriculturally 

 inclined think of its relation to plant and animal life ; to another 

 the conspicuous thing is its buoyancy by means of which it 

 carries great vessels from land to land, and by which buoyancy 

 and movement it sometimes dashes them against the rocks; 

 another thinks of its power of work in wearing down continents 

 and in filling the seas ; others think of related pleasures, swimming 

 boating and skating; others think of the beauty and majesty of 

 bodies of water. It is obvious that the interests are too diverse 

 to be gathered under any one of the five headings given above, 

 and any organization or selection of material and any method of 

 treatment to be used must be sufficiently plastic to permit 

 expression of these individualities in attitude. 



III. The Educational Purposes of Nature-Study 



In so far as the purposes of nature-study and geography are 

 common the following statement will stand for both, but no 

 attempt has been made to make a statement particularly for 

 geography. 



The general educational purposes of nature-study seem to me 



