104 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [4:4— APR.,i9q» 



the children. On testing their actual knowledge none of the 

 children knew by sight or song more than three birds, and most 

 of them failed to recognize the linnet which is as common there 

 as the English sparrow is in the east. 



Without going further, we may assume that directing the 

 child to new experiences in his natural environment — getting 

 first hand acquaintance with the common things — is an impor- 

 tant function of nature-study, and one that we may reasonably 

 expect to be carried out in the average school. We may call 

 this experience-getting or data-gathering. These data are 

 mostly things that impress themselves upon the child through 

 his senses and his own activities. The child proceeds somewhat 

 as follows: He sees something and wants to handle it. He is 

 often satisfied if he is simply allowed to hold it. But if he can 

 come into a still more vital personal relation with it by having it 

 serve him in some useful way, the experience is more satisfying 

 and definite. Of the many things he learns in this manner he 

 finds that some things are more useful than others. His activi- 

 ties in data-gathering for himself are therefore directed to the 

 tilings that serve him best, and also through imitation to those 

 that he sees serving others. Hence his first questions in the 

 presence of something new are usually: "What is it for.'' 

 "What is its name?" "What does it do?" What the child is 

 really trying to get at is whether the thing may be of use to him. 

 The answer to these questions determine the value he sets upon 

 it. He is not interested in details, however important they may 

 seem to the adult mind. As the child advances in experience 

 his gathering of data grows less promiscuous. There is a classi- 

 fication. Only those things are selected and become conscious 

 to him that serve his purposes or which he may try to make 

 useful through imitation. His own initiative and his social 

 environment therefore determine the amount and character of 

 the data which he gathers. 



When the child enters school it is assumed that among the 

 data that have thus been accumulated there is enough to introduce 

 and carry on an entirely different method of getting knowledge. 

 The school selects what it needs without trying to add new 

 data. The reason that cat, dog, cow, etc., have such a prominent 

 place in early primary lessons is not merely that they arc simple 

 words, but also because they are associated very intimately with 



