THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE IN 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



Published monthly, except June, July and August. Subscription price, including mem- 

 bership in the American Nature Study Society, 11.00 per year (nine issues). Canadian postage, 

 10 cents extra; foreign postage, 25 cents extra. 



y rnr . _ t ,x_ T1 x Please note date of expiration of your subscription on the label of the 

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 requirements. Subscriptions and advertisements should be sent to The Comslock Publishing 

 Co.. Ithaca, N. Y. Manuscripts for Publication and Books to be Reviewed should be sent 

 to the Editor. 



Editorial 



In the last editorial attention was called to the recent commenda- 

 tions by eminent educators of science instruction in the elementary- 

 schools. The school surveys that are so conspicuous a feature of 

 recent educational activities are resulting in recommendations to 

 the same effect. 



The Portland School Survey Report states (p. in) that "A 

 practical concrete course in nature-study, based not on books, but 

 on the phenomena of nature themselves, ought to form a part of 

 every elementary school curriculum, from the lowest to the highest 

 grade." 



The Cleveland Survey volume on What the Schools Teach and 

 Might Teach says "No elaborate argument should be required to 

 convince the authorities in charge of the school system of a modern 

 city like Cleveland that in this ultra-scientific age the children who 

 do not go beyond the elementary school — and they constitute a 

 majority — need to possess a working knowledge of the rudiments 

 of science if they are to make their lives effective. . . Con- 

 sidered from the practical standpoint of actual human needs, the 

 present almost complete neglect of elementary science is indefen- 

 sible." 



There never has been a time when the average home was as 

 much interested in the phenomena of nature as at present. People 

 of the professional class are coming to look upon a speaking acquain- 

 tance with birds, and trees, and flowers and butterflies as essential 

 to intelligence, quite as essential as familiarity with army move- 

 ments in the war or the point of view of a conspicuous author. A 

 new well written nature book sells like a popular novel. The den 

 of the middle-class boy or girl has nature books on its book-shelf 



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