THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED TO ALL PHASES OF NATURE-STUDY IN SCHOOLS 



Vol. 5 OCTOBER, 1909 No. 7 



NEBRASKA NUMBER 



The articles in this issue have been collected and edited b}/ 

 Dr. Ruth Marshall, of Rockford College, Rockford, 111., formerly 

 instructor in nature-study in the University of Nebraska. 



SOME BEGINNINGS IN NATURE-STUDY 



By CHARLES E. BESSEY 

 Head of the Department of Botany, the University of Nebraska 



In a paper read before the Iowa State Teachers" Association, 

 December 28, 1876, I advocated the study of nature as tending 

 "to arouse in the young a love for plants and animals, and a 

 curiosity about stones and fossils, the wind, the snow, the rain, 

 and the thousand and one natural phenomena which too often 

 are entirely unobserved, or if observed, scarcely more intelli- 

 gently than by the wild Indian." In discussing this matter 

 further I said: "There are many boys and girls who need but to 

 be guided to make close observers, or careful collectors. They 

 readily learn to use their eyes, and it is astonishing what rapid 

 progress they can make, and what enthusiasm they are capable 

 of exhibiting. While a teacher in the common schools, I saw 

 some wonderful developments of this kind. I once organized a 

 class in natiiral philosophy, in a school where the old routine of 

 reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, and grammar 

 had never within the memory of man been varied from. I gave 

 the class a plainly written book filled with excellent woodcuts. 

 Being an adept in whittling, I constructed, during my leisure 

 moments, many little pieces of apparatus for illustrating the 

 topics taken up from day to day. As the schoolroom was merel}' 

 a common single room, the class recited in the presence of the 



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