1 6 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE IV u . ,_, AN ., igo8 



Much of the so-called work in nature-study should be regarded 

 as wholly without the educational pale, it is without form and 

 void. The pedagogy, the real intellectual significance has been 

 lost in material and method. In secondary schools and uni- 

 versities alike each day sees intellects drowned in the great flood 

 of facts of our complex age. It is necessary to hark back to first 

 principles and to answer a few simple questions. What is the 

 underlying educational purpose in nature-study? In what terms 

 are its results to be expressed? What is the purpose sought in 

 science teaching? In what terms are its results to be expressed? 



The attempt has been to show that in the case in hand the 

 purposes and methods of the subjects are widely different. If 

 this contention is true, the similarity of material, even the identity 

 of the material, ought not to lead us to the inference that the sub- 

 jects are interchangeable or that they possess -some necessary 

 relation which a wise administration would emphasize. 



The relation between true nature-study and true science work 

 is perfectly simple and perfectly natural: It is the reflex in- 

 fluence of work well done in an elementary subject upon the 

 work done in another subject which is more recondite and more 

 intellectually exacting. 



II 



By C. F. HODGE 



Clark University 



The organization of this Society is timely and opportune. 1 

 take it to be the natural and spontaneous next-step in the evolu- 

 tion of a sane elementary science teaching which has been 

 developing in the public mind and has taken a definite trend 

 toward what we now call nature-study for nearly thirty years 

 past. This meeting thus marks a natural epoch in American 

 nature-study, and I especially wish to express my approval of 

 Article I of our Constitution: "Critical investigation," "estab- 

 lishment in schools of such nature-study as has been demonstrated 

 valuable and practicable for elementary education" here ex- 

 pressed, as the purpose of our Society is exactly what the 

 present needs. 



I have been called to scores of places to try to answer the 

 question of earnest teachers, as usually expressed, "what is the. 

 matter with our nature-study?" My many written attempts 



