408 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 111:9— Dec, 1915 



the higher and more complete will be the life. In proportion as 

 we discover the vital human interests in nature along the life-ways 

 of the child will be our success in Nature Study — measure for 

 measure. 



College Freshmen as an Index of the Progress of 



Nature-Study 



By James G. Needham 



Ithaca, N. Y. 



The Freshmen who have been coming into my laboratory in 

 numbers for a score of years have shown to a marked degree the 

 following characteristics : 



i. Ability to memorize — for a season. 



2 . Ability to copy and to imitate. 



3. Inability to trust their own eyes. 



In the schools they have been taught to use books and charts 

 and teachers, but they have not been trained to see things for 

 themselves. Oftentimes the "banner pupil" from the schools has 

 been in this respect most disappointing: an alert youth, perhaps 

 eager to catch every word that fell from the lips of the instructor, 

 eager to scan all the charts and diagrams, but indifferent about 

 seeing the thing itself, preferring second hand information. I do 

 not mean to say that all pupils have been so minded. Thank 

 heaven, no ! But I do mean to say that this attitude of mind has 

 characterized the product of our schools. 



Are not books the means of quick and easy acquirement of 

 information ? Have not the schools been largely satisfied with the 

 memorizing and manipulating of words? Words, words, words! 

 But words are symbols of experience only to those who know their 

 content. Words express concepts derived from things. It is the 

 study of things that puts meaning into them. Far too much of 

 our system of recitations and examinations has been mere juggling 

 with empty symbols. 



The course which was designed as a partial corrective for this 

 state of mind in Freshmen at Cornell University is one on the 

 Natural History of the Farm, some studies from which have been 

 published in this Review. It is required of Freshmen in the 

 College of Agriculture during their first term. It puts them to 

 work with their own hands on the things that belong to the soil. 



