NATURE PLA Y IN LOS ANGELES CITY SCHOOLS 



379 



In giving model lessons in the class rooms, specimens are taken 

 to make the lesson more alive and helpful. A pleasing incident 

 occurred when I entered a second grad'e with a pigeon in a cage. 

 A boy ran out of the room, soon returning with his pet pigeon 

 sitting on his hand. It is a great pleasure to be recognized by the 

 children as the lady with the abolones, the strawberry finch, the 

 pretty autumn leaves, etc. When a newsboy runs up to tell of the 

 oak-galls he found in the park, Sunday, I know that his eyes are 

 open to the wonders of Mother Nature, and that he is getting a 

 foundation of knowledge which will make life a pleasure. 



Watching a Bird 



This subject is a big one — the most important in our school 

 curriculum. We are only awakening to it, and we are learning 

 with the child — the only true method of teaching, because it results 

 in true comradeship. When Charles S. Coons of the Gary Schools 

 says the sciences should be for the grades, I believe he is right. 

 Give the child a chance in the scientific world, while his interest is 

 keen; before he becomes callous to the marvels of it ; and, I believe 

 we will not have so many coming out of school without having yet 

 found themselves or their life-work. While returning from the 

 hills one day, an eighth srade lad announced that he was going to 

 "Poly High" next year and take up "this work." A letter from 

 this boy tells of how he has watched the king snake lose his skin, 

 of the main- bird nests he has lound and of the wild flowers he has 



