coulteh] NATURE-STUDY AND SCIENCE TEACHING 13 



mation there may be gained a science of agriculture however 

 elementary, is to remove the work from the category of nature- 

 study and place it in the group of memory-studies. 



Nature-studv deals with the materials of science, but from a 

 different viewpoint and with a different purpose. Its primary 

 viewpoint is the attitude of interest on the part of the child in its 

 surroundings; the purpose, growing out of that viewpoint to 

 increase this interest, to broaden it, to deepen and co make it 

 educative. Bv a series of small intellectual conquests it seeks to 

 awaken a permanent enthusiasm for greater conquests. By 

 awakening a sense of power in gaining knowledge through the 

 senses, to stimulate an exercise of that power in a constantly in- 

 creasing degree. Out of such work one may expect to see 

 naturally developed a sympathetic and responsive relation with 

 nature; through it there should come a great enrichment of life 

 because of multiplied points of contact with nature. These 

 purposes are luminous before those who grasp the real signifi- 

 cance of the movement and make any and all material available 

 for the work. 



With such a varied material, a material necessarily determined 

 partly by the surrounding and partly by the aptitude of the 

 teacher, it is evident that uniformity of work, as the phase is 

 understood in educational circles, is impossible. Every attempt 

 to make uniform courses in nature-study has but resulted in the 

 introduction of elementary science of a very feeble and tenuous 

 sort. Such courses do exist, however, and nature-study is com- 

 pelled to bear the burden of the pedagogic absurdity. The 

 craze for uniformity more than any other one thing has led to the 

 great success of our schools in the development of mediocrity. 

 Uniformity looms so large before the eyes of the average school 

 authorities that power, self-reliance, initiative, enthusiasm, all 

 seem pathologic symptoms demanding vigorous and heroic 

 treatment. Nature-study has been prevented from coming to 

 its own because of this irrational demand for uniform courses of 

 study, uniform material and uniform methods. 



The objection may be made, as it has been made, that such a 

 conception of nature-study leads to scattering and unrelated 

 work. It is urged that if the subject is really one of high value, 

 that some material or some method of universal application 

 should certainlv be found. It must, however, be remembered 



