coulter] XATURE-STUDY in INDIANA 35 



to the real pedagogical significance of nature-study and urging a 

 revision of existing courses in the light of this conception. As a 

 part of this leaflet a tentative outline of work (*) was suggested as, 

 at least, workable. This marked the beginning of a departure 

 from extended, formal courses and a substitution of a series of 

 suggestive courses, a line of action which received immediate 

 justification in the results. 



At present there is a decided tendency to depart from the term 

 nature-study altogether and to substitute some other, which has 

 not had such a load of educational absurdities to slough off. In 

 the last State Manual and Uniform Course of Study for the 

 Elementary Schools of Indiana, issued by the Department of 

 Public Instruction, "Nature-Study" disappears and "Agricul- 

 ture" is substituted. An examination of the outhne shows that 

 the change merely serves to make the work a trifle more informa- 

 tional and didactic and to restrict the material to fairly rigid 

 boundaries. In many cities also the title has disappeared, the 

 work, in part at least, appearing under the high-sounding phrase 

 "Vocational Training." In this case also there seems to be 

 some indication of a modification of the work in such a way as to 

 cause it to lose its real significance. With terminology we 

 have no concern, if the real heart of the matter be reached; and 

 the indications at present are that the value of nature material 

 as an educational tool has been so thoroughly demonstrated in 

 Indiana that its use will never be abandoned, under whatever 

 name it may be compelled to mask itself. 



The trend in nature -study work in Indiana is in the right 

 direction. It is losing its foimal taint and its rigidity; it is 

 becoming more and more vital and educational, in that it 

 rarely today attempts to cover the whole range of the universe; 

 the initiative of the teacher is showing more and more, and the 

 material employed is more often than formerly related to the 

 environment instead of to a text-book. It is a safe assertion 

 that more real nature-study w^ork and better nature-study work 

 is now being done in the State than ever before and that this 

 condition very often exists in schools where nature-study has 

 no definite place in the courses of study. 



♦What Experience Has Taught Concerning Nature- Study. Stanley 

 Coulter, Purdue University, Bulletin. 



