LOOMls ] CHILDREN AS NATURALISTS 53 



planations. This has had without doubt some effect on ele- 

 mentary teaching of these subjects, (c) Publishers have been 

 active in turning out a vast quantity of attractively gotten up 

 matter on plants and animals. This includes, of course, the 

 product of "nature-fakers," big and little, (d) Public speakers 

 have been susceptible to this run on biological subjects and 

 have done free advertising, (e) I think it must also be admitted, 

 that the physics introduced from above into high and grammar 

 schools has not proven entirely satisfactory. This attempt to 

 replace the excellent point of view of Arnott, Ganot, Huxley, 

 Stewart and others, by a mathematical one is quite generally rec- 

 ognized as having failed to meet the needs of tjie majority of 

 pupils. Certainly it has given ample grounds for the biologically 

 inclined to exclaim, "I told you so!" (f ) During this same period 

 the culturists have been fighting in their last ditch, as some of 

 us believe, for their peculiar definition of education. They 

 have clearly seen that if they could adopt the material of their 

 antagonists — the scientists — and yet shape it to meet their 

 ends, they would in so doing succeed when apparently acknowledg- 

 ing defeat. The path to the most valuable type of nature- 

 study has without doubt been more blocked by the lingering 

 fears of those inclined toward the cultural definition of education 

 than we have been in the habit of thinking. Educational 

 conservatism when analized is largely found to consist of a 

 dread of "the useful, the practical, the helpful, the necessary," 

 prefering rather to dwell in the comfortable abode of the past 

 than to engage in the problems of the modern home, shop, farm 

 and street. Consequently, the curious and trivial has marked 

 the nature-study movement. Anything, anywhere; so long as it 

 has no immediate connection with the present and future needs 

 of the child. The color of autumn leaves, but not the color 

 of the soil and its cause; a trip to the meadows to see the wild 

 flowers, but no visiting of nurseries to see the methods of pro- 

 ducing and rearing of food plants; frequent mention of toys, but 

 no attention to the pump and the steam-engine. Such you will 

 bear witness has been a marked characteristic and tendency of 

 the nature-study movement, (g) The tendency to restrict 

 nature-study to the presentation of plants and animals has beer, 

 reenforced by certain aspects of the doctrine of evolution. 

 While one would be exceedingly brave to attempt a definition that 



