Nature-Study in the Primary Grades 



Robert Cunningham Miller 



I envy the teacher of the primary grades. Her task is great 

 and her trials are many, but for gaining an appreciation of Nature, 

 her situation is ideal. John Burroughs says : 



"I have thought that the boy is the only true lover of Nature, 

 and that we who make such a dead set at studying and admiring 

 her come very wide of the mark. . . Certain it is that we often 

 get some of the best touches of Nature from children." 



It is surprising what close observers children are, and how 

 readily they pick up bits of information about the interesting 

 things around them. They know where the Bluebird makes her 

 nest in the hollow tree; they know where the first spring violets 

 grow. And what delight they take in telling about it ! Give us 

 teachers with a genuine interest in Nature-Study, teachers who will 

 lead their classes back to the heart of Nature, and the whole 

 puzzling problem of Nature Teaching in the schools is solved. The 

 children will teach themselves, and they will teach the teacher. 



We need not go far in quest of subject matter. Enough of 

 Nature is visible from the school-room window for centuries of 

 study. If the outlook is upon a barren city street, hold night- 

 school now and then and study the stars. They are visible alike 

 from town and country, and the children never tire of watching 

 them and picking out the Great Bear and the Little Bear and the 

 Dog Star, and Orion, the fabled hero of old. 



The great Agassiz held Nature-Study classes in the loft of a barn, 

 and a barn is still a good place to study Nature. If the swallow's 

 nests under the eaves are inaccessible, don't knock them down with 

 a pole to see if there are any little swallows inside. Let them 

 alone and begin your studies on the first floor, where the cows are 

 kept. The cow is just as much a part of Nature as the wood- 

 mouse or the squirrel; she is just as interesting and certainly she 

 is a great deal more useful. If you do not think the cow an ideal 

 subject for study, read "Our Rural Divinity," a charming sketch 

 in which John Burroughs has immortalized the cow and, we are 

 safe in saying, the cow has immortalized John Burroughs. 



For a start in bovine research, how many upper incisors does a 

 cow have? Compare her in this respect with a sheep and a goat. 

 How does a cow get up? Contrast her method with that of a 



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