1 1 2 THE NA TUNE-STUD Y RE VIE IV [ 4 = 4-apr., 1908 



ing conducive to the development of an educational point of view 

 which is new to them. 



Indeed, it is very questionable if our present attempts to make 

 over our whole body of existing teachers into teachers of nature- 

 study will meet with any great measure of success. For it means 

 a recasting of the whole mental being on their part ; a breaking of 

 old and the establishment of new habits of thought. We are 

 certainly over sanguine if we expect to jostle them out of their 

 bookish ways in any considerable numbers, and lead them to the 

 proper point of view for the teaching of nature-study, while they 

 are still occupied day by day with the numerous cares of the 

 schoolroom. Fortunately, there is a certain proportion "vvho 

 have always had some bent toward nature-work, independently 

 of the school, and it is chiefly to these we must look until ade- 

 quately trained recruits are forthcoming from our normal schools 

 and colleges. 



However, granted that the teacher is able and willing to under- 

 take the work, it will be found that man)' teachers have had 

 difficulty in finding out just what nature-study is. Nor are their 

 hazy ideas in this respect to be wondered at when one considers 

 the confusion that has reigned to within the past two years, even 

 among the professional advocates of the subject. One needs 

 only to read the symposium on nature-study in the earlier num- 

 bers of The Nature-Study Review to agree to this. According 

 to the training and predilections of the respective contributors, 

 now one, now another conception has been advocated as ap- 

 proximating most nearly to the ideal course in nature-study. 

 . It would appear that at least two distinct ideas are masquerad- 

 ing under the name of nature-stud}'. The first verges on the 

 sentimental. Its aim is to awaken in the child the proper emo- 

 tional attitude toward nature. It has in mind more the child's 

 feelings and sympathies. The other idea regards more the child's 

 intellect, the necessity of training him to observe accurately and 

 to think clearly. 



During the past two or three years it has become evident, I 

 think, that both ideas have their value; but it has also certainly 

 become manifest, as far as the writer's observation has gone, that 

 there is great danger of overdoing the sentimental side and that 

 the "thrillers" are not the best teachers of nature-study nor the 

 ones who best know nature. 



