MiLLERj NATURE-STUDY IN THE NORMAL SCHOOL I43 



graduate with credit in science courses, the nature-study atti- 

 tude is a new, fresh and altogether delightful point of view. 



The second point, that is, the demand for nature-study in the 

 public school system is a question of the present and of the 

 future. The present demand is rightly insistent, the future de- 

 mands that we who teach the subject should make good. Nature- 

 study must meet the expectations of those who have called for its 

 introduction. To this end we need trained teachers who can 

 make the subject effective. 



The difficulty of presentation lies, to a great extent, in the fact 

 that the teacher has not the proper viewpoint. As a result 

 nature-study becomes either elementary science on the one hand 

 or the coddling of a false sentimentality on the other. The 

 object of nature-study is not to impart knowledge but to train the 

 power of attaining knowledge. It is not to inspire sentimen- 

 tality but to arouse sympathy free from affectation. Between the 

 Scylla of science teaching and the Charybdis of sentimentality 

 lies the course that nature-studv must navigate. The normal 

 schools and colleges which train teachers must act as pilots. 



