!q6 The Ottawa Naturalist. [December 



In some of the provinces the Superintendents of Education 

 were men of scientific attainments, who saw the importance of the 

 study of nature as a means^of maintaining and developing that 

 sympathetic attitude towards nature that characterizes the child 

 before he attends school, of fostering the habit of close observation, 

 and of creating that scientific spirit of enquiry in the effort to get at 

 the truth. The influence of such men as Dr. MacKay in Nova Scotia, 

 and Dr. Seath in Ontario, at the heads of the Departments of 

 Education, did a great deal to pave the way for the new Move- 

 ment in their respective provinces, at a time when their ideas were 

 in advance of legislative opinion. 



The last agency to which I shall refer, is the Macdonald 

 Rural Schools Fund, supplied by Sir William C. Macdonald of 

 Montreal, and administered by Dr. James W. Robertson, now of 

 the Macdonald College, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec. The 

 improvement of rural schools was the main object of this Ennd. 

 The means adopted were : (i) The building and maintenance of a 

 large consolidated school in each of the four eastern provinces, as 

 object lessons ; (2) The training of a certain number of teachers 

 in Nature-Study, Manual Training, and Domestic Science for 

 service in rural schools ; and (3) The maintenance of a group of 

 school-gardens in each of the five eastern provinces, with a travel- 

 ling instructor for each group, and all in perfect harmony with 

 the education Departments of the provinces concerned. 



The school-garden is now recognised as a most potent factor 

 in the education of the young by begetting habits of close observa- 

 tion, thoughtfulncss and carefulness. Properly used, the garden 

 is "a means to an end, not the end itself, the end being the 

 symmetrical education of the child. The school-garden seeks 

 education through utility and utility through education". 



The teachers trained at the Macdonald Institute, Guelph, on 

 their return to their schools have preached strenuously the doc- 

 trines of the new Movement. 



Besides these direct results of the Macdonald Rural Schools 

 Fund, the indirect results have been very marked. While many 

 persons have been unable to see the Macdonald Consolidated 

 Schools and school-gardens, there are very few persons who have 

 not read about them and learned the object of their establishment. 

 The object of the Fund has been achieved both directly and indirect- 

 ly. The Consolidated Schools have performed most excellent ser- 

 vice in showing better types of school buildings and in providing 

 more efficient teachers and more effective teaching for rural-4-ffev 







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