260 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [12:6-Sept., 1916 



knowledge is useful but non-vocational. Whether one is to be a 

 plumber, jeweler, or a housekeeper, he should be taught these 

 elementary ideas as a part of his practical education. 



Aids. — There are many aids in this state for teachers of Nature- 

 study. Among these the Roger William's Park Museum is the 

 most progressive and helpful. Museums were once thought to be 

 storehouses for relics and antiques. Mr. Madison, the curator, 

 prefers to call it the people's university, and he is living up to the 

 title. In a bulletin of January, 1913, is the following statement: 

 "Four years ago there were no Sunday lectures, no lectures for 

 school children, no loan material for the schools." You have been 

 given circulars which show the growth in this work. Remember, 

 that in 1909 we did not enjoy any of these things at the Park 

 Museum. Let us look at the figures for three year periods and note 

 the trend of the times. 



1912 1915 



Children attending lectures 6,373 27,148 



Specimens loaned schools 318 1,353 



Teachers using loan material 75 121 



Book circulation 1.859 9i06i 



Last year one-third of the six grades went out to the park vol- 

 untarily for a nature talk and it was so popular that a general place 

 has been arranged in the program of the city schools for such an 

 event. Some of these children had never been in the city park be- 

 fore and in a few cases the teachers paid the fares. A school cen- 

 sus recently showed a surprisingly large sum turned over to the 

 moving picture houses by school children. Some of these five 

 cent pieces would give better returns on investment if used in car 

 fares to the museum. This is not an entirely new idea. The 

 slogan of the City Planning Committee of the Sacramento Cham- 

 ber of Commerce is, "The child has the same right to be taught to 

 read a roadside as a book." We have just as much right to ex- 

 pect a city or town to pay the fares of children to the museum and 

 to read the roadside as to ask them to purchase textbooks in arith- 

 metic and other studies. The roadside and the museum are the 

 textbooks of Nature-study. 



The museum is a living museum in that it includes the roadside 

 as a part of its equipment. Last year the curator and his assist- 

 ants led the school children on 20 different trips with a total at- 

 tendance of 301 children. Our children have a right to appreciate 



