Editorial 



A new text in nature stud}'* is worthy of more than passing 

 notice, especially, when it incorporates a national idea on the sub- 

 ject. In the first chapter the author says "Nature Study is more 

 than formal science. The latter is rigidly disciplinary, training 

 hand, eye, and intellect, at the same time equipping the mind with 

 knowledge useful in the affairs of life. Of Nature-Study, as we seek 

 to teach it, all this can be said, and more." "The discipline is not 

 always so obviously rigid; it is gentler, but none the less real. 

 There can be no doubt as to the training of hand and eye, nor 

 sometimes also, of hearing, taste and smell. And the knowledge 

 gained is always mind enriching, i. e., it constitutes culture, and it 

 is not infrequently practical as well. But beyond discipline and 

 beyond the storing of the mind with facts, we aim in our school 

 studies at developing a cultured appreciation of nature, a sympa- 

 thetic recognition of her aesthetic aspects — that is a love of the 

 open enriched and enlightened by knowledge." 



The book includes many lessons on animals and plants including 

 the whole gamut of both kingdoms, and also a considerable treat- 

 ment of geography and meteorology. Throughout the author 

 insists on a first hand contact with materials. He gives many 

 suggestions of ways, and means and outlines a course of study. 



The striking thing about the book, however, is its frankly 

 scientific style and its scientific form of subject matter. It is not a 

 dilution of science to meet the comprehension of the child ; rather 

 a selection of science with reference to the child's interests and 

 abilities. Then it is science and more. The scientist has been tree 

 to criticize nature-stud)- as a perversion of science or as so weak an 

 attenuation as to be useless or worse. And it may be occasionally 

 justly open to such an attack. Though such a book as this, if it 

 embodies a national practice, certainly shows such criticism to be 

 in the main unjust. Now comes the counter charge that science 

 teaching is incomplete, lacking cultural and aesthetic values that 

 it might well possess, ought to possess in any efficient educational 

 scheme. Dr. Needham's book reviewed in this issue aims to add 

 these elements to the agriculture course. These mutual criticisms 

 are helpful. They tend to produce better balanced science instrue- 



*The Aims and Methods of Nature-Study, a Guide for Teachers, John 

 Rennie Lecturer and Assistant to the Professor of Natural History, the Uni- 

 versity of Aberdeen, etc. ; 352 p. Warwick and York; Si. 10. 



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