1 80 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE IV U :6— sbpt., 1908 



science of higher schools is highly undesirable for nature-study in 

 elementary schools. Such agreement on fundamental prin- 

 ciples ought to justify greatly increased activity in giving special 

 preparation to teachers of nature-study. We need not wait for 

 this Society to work out the details of the best nature-study 

 before beginning to train teachers. In fact most of the details 

 will be best worked out by the teachers at work after we get them 

 trained. 



Time limitations compel me to review hastily several methods 

 suggested for training nature-study teachers: 



1. College-extension lectures: The college professor (999 

 times in 1000 the professor of biology) accepts an invitation to 

 give a short series of lectures before a teachers' institute or a 

 teachers' club. Packing up his most gorgeous lantern slides, the 

 professor goes forth to teach the teachers of a town or country how 

 to admire the beauties of birds and trees and flowers. You know 

 the result. The audience probably is enthusiastic, especially if 

 the lantern slides are good and the speaker has a good assortment 

 of nature stories ; but one who looks afterward for results is con- 

 vinced that extension lectures will not transform the vast majority 

 of teachers into good teachers of nature-study. I am not oppos- 

 ing the university extension lectures on nature-study. They are 

 valuable for inspiration, not to mention harmless entertainment; 

 but we must not expect to solve nature-study problems with 

 teachers who begin and finish their own studies of nature in a 

 limited series of lantern-slide lectures. We must have something 

 which gets nearer to natural things themselves. 



2 . The nature-study supervisor : A few years ago there was a 

 great demand for supervisors. Principals and superintendents 

 seemed to think that a year's work by a supervisor ought to solve 

 the problem for all time. The plan might have given better 

 satisfaction if there were more permanence of teachers ; but it is 

 nonsense to think that once started by a supervisor, nature-study 

 will go on like a perpetual-motion machine. Moreover, it is not 

 reasonable to expect that busy teachers who never spent an hour 

 studying science can be supervised into good nature-study 

 workers by occasional visits and suggestions from a supervisor. 

 Supervisors are needed, not for one year but regularly; but the 

 best of supervisors can never solve the problem of training teach- 

 ers of nature-study so long as the rank and file of teachers do not 



