chahles] RE LA TION OF NATURE-STUDY AND SCIENCE 45 



the same material, for example, between nature-study and 

 science and between nature study and geography. 



(3) The chief difficulty with nature-study teaching today is 

 not so much a lack of knowledge of the subject-matter as it is 

 a lack of a workable, consistent point of view on the part of the 

 teacher. 



(4) The function of the teacher in nature-study is to select 

 problems that have their roots in the experiences of the children 

 and then see to it that these problems are the children's before 

 they begin to work upon them. Nature-study should furnish 

 an opportunity for children to work out problems with material. 



IX 



BY F. L. CHARLES 

 State Normal School, DeKalb, 111. 



It is a very suggestive fact that we humans seem to interest 

 ourselves first in those things which are farthest away from us 

 and onlv later come back home to study the near-at-hand. 

 Astronomy was old when Physiology was young. The agri- 

 culturist hitches up and drives to town to spend his good time 

 and money upon some lusus naturae when he could not be induced 

 to expend the price of a postal card to obtain useful information 

 on some matter of vital importance to his immediate welfare. 

 Is it not possible that in our preliminary survey we have over- 

 looked a most important portion of the very wide field which we 

 are attempting to cultivate? Writers and general texts in 

 nature-study give scant consideration — if any — to topics bearing 

 upon the structure, activities, and immediate welfare of the 

 human body. Some, unfortunately, speak disparagingly of 

 subject-matter of this character in elementary schools. 



I raise the question: May it not be considered orthodox to 

 include the human body and its environmental relations in the 

 realm of legitimate nature-study material ? 



Is there any natural, material thing under the sun more 

 worthy of study than the human body? Many children are 

 being taught grasshopper anatomy who hear no helpful word 

 concerning their own bodies. This cannot be right. Surely, so 

 long as man lives in a temple he should aspire to a fairly intimate 

 acquaintance with the parts and purposes of his domicile. One 

 who is fitted to teach the child concerning plant and animal life 



