bagley] EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH 177 



tends to materialize a process the essence of which should be 

 spiritual and ideal, it should be pointed out that the accurate 

 knowledge of facts and conditions that science attempts to re- 

 veal is not now, and never has been, inconsistent with the high- 

 est type of idealism. After all has been said and done, the perma- 

 nent goods of life are its visions and its ideals. Facts and 

 principles are but guides to the realization of the ideals, and 

 the more accurate and precise the knowledge, the safer it is as 

 an instrument for the realization of whatever purpose may domi- 

 nate life. It is true that education must do something besides 

 furnish knowledge. It must do what it can to implant ideals and 

 develop worthy purposes. But it must also furnish the means 

 of realizing ideals and purposes. And while in the work of 

 education itself, it is the ends and ideals that are fundamentally 

 important, the perfection of the instruments through which we 

 strive to realize our ideals must claim a share of our atten- 

 tion. 



In connection with what we term the "newer" subjects of 

 the curriculum, — among which nature-study has an important 

 lace, — good service could be done by the application 

 of the quantitative methods of investigation. Do we justify 

 nature-study because it gives the pupil a disposition to depend 

 upon unprejudiced observation for truth? If so. it should not 

 be difficult to show that we either are or are not justified in 

 our assumption. Pupils who have undergone the courses in 

 nature-study should, in certain situations, react in a way that 

 would differentiate them from pupils who have not "studied" 

 nature. If we have a definite conception of what nature-study 

 ought to do, it should not take us very long to devise a series of 

 tests that will measure, with a fair degree of accuracy, our 

 achievements in teaching the subject. Do we believe that 

 nature-study will give to those who properly pursue it a sympa- 

 thy for nature and a disposition to seek their recreation in the 

 woods and fields rather than in the "nickelodeon", the penny- 

 arcade, or the pool-room? There is no insurmountable difficulty 

 in the way of a test that will prove or disprove our hypothesis. 

 Pupils there are in abundance who have never "taken" nature- 

 studv. And this group could be duplicated by another, similar 

 to it in every significant respect except the latter have studied 

 nature under the guidance of sympathetic teachers. What now 

 will be the difference between these two groups in terms of the 



