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 $1.50 per year (nine issues). Canadian post- 

 age 10 cents extra, foreign postage, 20 cents extra. 



Editorial 



The Present Status of Nature-Study 



For a^quarter of a century the Editor has been working with 

 the teachers of our land, trying to help them to introduce and to 

 teach successfully nature-study in the schools. There have been 

 many "ups and downs" in this enterprise and of the latter we have 

 been made painfully conscious. To begin with, the established 

 curricula of the public schools stood like a stone wall, apparently 

 impregnable and insurmountable against a study so simple as 

 that which made a child intelligent about his natural environ- 

 ment. To end with, the many objections on the part of the teacher 

 to the introduction of a new subject that could not be reduced to 

 rule and memorized were so numerous, so small, so sharp, that to 

 meet and conquer them was like fighting mosquitoes. 



By continual prodding some holes have been made in the wall 

 and the air is pretty well cleared of mosquitoes at the present 

 time. We find cities, villages and states laying out courses in 

 nature-study, although sometimes it is called junior or elementary 

 science. These courses are extensive, helpful and practical; 

 a very excellent one for Pennsylvania is on our table now having 

 come to us recently. Many of the normal schools are giving 

 courses in nature-study this summer; it is a conservative estimate 

 that five thousand teachers are taking courses in this study in 

 summer schools. 



Our own encouraging experience is shared by other teachers in 

 summer schools, and that is the teachers are far better prepared 

 than formerly and many of them have had a year or more of 

 experience in teaching nature-study in the various grades. They 

 come to us with many pertinent and searching questions and 

 valuable suggestions. These things and many others show that 



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