hunter] NATURE AND HIGH SCHOOL 355 



science." "Nature study is an introduction." A western city 

 says "Nearly all our elementary teachers have had courses in 

 biology and carry out the same methods of instruction (experi- 

 mental method) in grades as in the high school." 



Personal experience in New York City, where the correlation 

 in most schools is very slight, shows that pupils who have had 

 experimental science as is given in some of the elementary schools 

 of the city (where a special teacher gives instruction under the 

 departmental system) * come to their biological work with an 

 entirely different mental attitude from pupils who have not had 

 this training. 



It is not the purpose of this paper to suggest methods of improve- 

 ment in nature study but some very evident lines of improvement 

 are open, if this report means anything. Expression of opinion 

 has been freely given, and some of the criticism obtained is just. 

 The past decade has shown great strides in the direction of the 

 introduction of nature study in the schools, the obvious suggestion 

 arising from the data previously given would indicate that the 

 teachers of nature study should next attack the problem of subject 

 matter and point of view. More uniformity of subject matter 

 and in presentation, less time devoted to reading about nature 

 and more time to experimental work of a simple sort, the cor- 

 relation of nature work^and elementary physiology, the introduc- 

 tion of cyclic work of a kind that will have ultimate bearing on the 

 problems of life, and last but not least, the proper training in the 

 normal and training schools for the teaching of nature study; 

 these are some of the problems which the leaders of the nature 

 study movement might well devote their energies during the 

 next decade of nature study development in the elementary 

 schools. 



It is interesting to note that since this paper was written several 

 years ago (and then filed away and forgotten) that several recent 

 papers by Bigelow, Trafton and others take up some of the prob- 

 lems referred to in the last paragraph. The paper is submitted 

 for its historical value in giving evidence rather than from any 

 attempt to bring new ideas before the readers of the Nature- 

 Study REymw. 



