loomis] CHILDREN AS NATURALISTS 55 



for the dictum. We must turn therefore, to the testimony of 

 those who have had experience in teaching children lessons 

 taken from different parts of the outside world , and wo have 

 studied the reactions of the children to both of the great divisions 

 of nature — the biological and the physical. Agreeable to the re- 

 quest of the editor of The Review for experience bearing on the 

 question, "are children naturally interested in living things, and 

 very little in the lifeless," I will answer the question first and 

 give my experience afterwards. My experience with children 

 and observation of the work of other teachers lead me to reply 

 to the question with an emphatic no, not in the least, is it true ! 



I think I can lay claim to a fairly broad and comprehensive 

 experience with this question. I have taught elementary 

 science in two of the larger New England normal schools for 

 about fourteen years. My teaching experience during this time 

 has been about evenly divided between the biological sciences 

 of botany and zoology and the physical sciences of chemistry, 

 physics, mineralogy, and physiography. I am practically always 

 teaching a biological and a physical science during the same 

 term. So far as I can analyze my mental attitude, I have no 

 particular bias toward any of the sciences, unless it be that of 

 physiography, and curiously enough, this is the one science 

 which has least entered into the selection of topics for the 

 various grades under my observation. Connected with each of 

 these normal schools are model and practice schools in which are 

 enrolled more than a thousand children from kindergarten to 

 grammar school. During these fourteen years I have been in 

 close touch with the nature work of the various grades, visiting 

 rooms during lessons, preparing material for lessons, drawing up 

 lesson plans, serving as "consulting" teacher and supervisor. 

 In fact I have had that opportunity of studying first-hand the 

 responses of children of all grades below the high school, en- 

 joyed by science teachers in all well organized normal schools. 



It must be clear why this bit of personal history is introduced 

 at this point. The attempt has been made to show that the 

 statement, "children are naturally interested in living things 

 and very little interested in the lifeless," is a statement that does 

 not rest on secure foundation. If, therefore, it is to remain, it 

 must find support in the testimony of competent witnesses. 



Of the hundreds of lessons which have come under mv ob- 



