The Pleasure of Outdoor-Teaching 



Lucille V. Wilkinson, 

 Washington D. C. 



The statement is frequently made that out-door lessons are more 

 difficult to give successfully than those of the regular classroom, 

 which probably accounts for the lack of them on the regular school 

 program.. To enjoy them, first the teacher must set aside pre- 

 conceived ideas of classroom, discipline. To most classes the ' ' unusu- 

 alness" of being "let out" during school hours is a signal for 

 a riot of joyousness that is somestimes difficult to get under control. 

 Is' this not a sad commentary on "school as she is taught?" A 

 change to the out-of-doors should not be so unusual as to cause 

 the air to "go to the head of the down-town child's head"as it were. 

 "The child is father of the man." I stood on the outskirts of a 

 tree lesson given at one of our higher institutions of learning last 

 summer, and found the students, mostly teacheis, conducting 

 themselves in very m.uch the same manner as eight grade pupils 

 on its first expedition out-doors. That children do acquire the 

 spirit of the lesson was clearly demonstrated last spring when 

 our local Audubon Society co-operated with the nature-study 

 corps in bird trips. Over a hundred boys and girls quietly crept 

 along the streams and through urderbrusb to see the migrants. 

 From the leaders came only enthusiastic reports of the youthful 

 observers and from the children "When are we going again?" 

 A fifth grade girl after a trip to the Zoo where she had been many 

 times before without guidance, remarked "This is the nicest 

 lesson I have ever had. I never had any one explain the animals 

 to me before." 



The distractions of the out-doors are naturally disconcerting 

 to the teacher accustomed to the outward appearance of undivided 

 attention that the schoolroom gives. It hurts, to take a class 

 to the Zoo, for instance, for the study of the ruminants or the 

 rodents, and find the interest of the children on the snakes in the 

 cage across the room.. The teacher's adaptability now comes into 

 play. She strengthens herself by apparently following her class 

 but accomplishing her own ends at the same time. 



87 



