THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF NATURE-STUDY 



By JOHN WILKES SHEPHERD, 

 Head of Dept. of Science, Chicago Normal School 



[A paper read at Cleveland conference of A. N. S. S., July 3, 1908.] 



One's teaching of a subject bears the strong impress of his stu- 

 dent work in that subject. This is particularly true of a begin- 

 ning teacher both as to subject-matter and method of handling 

 it. It is a well-known fact, for example, that a beginning teacher 

 of science in a secondary school selects material for his classes 

 from that which he has studied and presents it in much the same 

 way as he had it presented to him in college. This may be re- 

 sponsible for the fact that a large part of the science work in our 

 secondary schools seems to be diluted or elementary college 

 science, and it too often happens that the diluting degenerates 

 into an almost useless taxation of memory under the guise of 

 proof or generalization from laboratory work. In general, too 

 much of our science work lacks the vital touch to produce initia- 

 tive in its students. Is it not true that much of our laboratory 

 work, which we consider essential to even an appreciation of 

 science, is of the same mental quality as that of the individual in 

 the industrial world who does what he does because he is told to 

 do it? How many students of science go into the laboratory 

 because they are told to go, instead of going in to solve some 

 problem which is their own ! 



If science work in the secondary school has been largely diluted 

 college science, what kind of work should we expect in the elemen- 

 tary school from the foster child, or perhaps lineal descendant of 

 science, namely, nature-study? The answer is to be found in the 

 early nature-study — diluted secondary-school science. The early 

 efforts in nature-study were made by science teachers, mainly 

 biologists, and it is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the 

 work was an attempt at very elementary science, or at least 

 pointed toward science. It is an easy matter to trace the parallel 

 between science and nature-study, both as to subject-matter 

 and method of treatment. When science work was largely dem- 

 onstration by the teacher, supplemented by reading, nature- 



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