INTEREST OF SCIENTIFIC MEN IN NATURE-STUDY 



The following extract is from the address of Professor McMur- 

 rieh before the American Society of Naturalists at the recent 

 Chicago meeting. The remarks here quoted followed a discussion 

 of various ways in which the Society could be of value to scientific, 

 movements. 



"Do we as a body of working biologists properly understand 

 the conditions of science-teaching in the schools, and have we 

 shown sufficient interest in bringing it to that state of efficiency 

 which its importance demands? In later years a wave of nature- 

 study has passed over our primary schools, driven by Froebelian 

 breezes. But, unfortunately, in many schools it seems that the 

 Froebelianism which should blow as a gentle zephyr has been 

 permitted to increase to a hurricane and the wave of science 

 study, instead of being an educational blessing, has carried 

 devastation on its crest. Two of our members have accomplished 

 much by their endeavors to establish nature-study upon a proper 

 basis and their work deserves a greater meed of credit than it has 

 hitherto received. But even yet, so far as my observation and 

 information extend, the teaching of nature-study is in many 

 schools in the hands of inefficient instructors, untrained in the 

 methods and purposes of such instruction, and the result is a 

 minute crumb of solid food overlaid by a heavy coating of maw- 

 kish sentimentality. The principal aim of nature-study should 

 be to train the child to the observation of natural objects and 

 phenomena and to awaken in his mind a healthy curiosity as to 

 their meaning and significance. In other words, its purpose 

 should be to develop in the child the scientific spirit, which is not 

 inborn but requires development. Its primary object should 

 not be a directly utilitarian one and it should certainly not be used 

 as a means of evoking an unhealthy and unnatural sentimentalism 

 when no sentimentalism should exist. Surely in a search for the 

 sentimental, nature is the last place to which we should turn. 

 Perhaps the causes of the mistakes in nature-study are largely 

 due to conditions which are beyond our control, but have we done 

 our duty in upholding the hands of our fellows who are striving 

 for efficient instruction, in calling the attention of those in 

 authority to errors in method, and in endeavoring to set science 

 teaching in the primary schools upon a proper basis?" 



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