188 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW U:6-sbpt., 1908 



the great majority of teachers will not do so, nor can they be 

 expected to, without special instruction in the subject. 



A few months ago there was published in School Science and 

 Mathematics a symposium on the work being done in biology and 

 nature-study in some of our normal schools. This suggested that 

 it might be instructive to ascertain the opinion of experienced 

 teachers regarding the kind of work which they thought should be 

 done in this connection. The following questions were sent to 

 about 125 teachers of Passaic, representing as previously ex- 

 plained, various States and normal schools. "As a result of your 

 experience in teaching, what kind of preparation in your normal 

 school course do you consider would have been most helpful to 

 yoti for the purpose of teaching nature-study. (1) Courses in 

 botany and zoology separately or one course in biology taking the 

 study of plants and animals together. (2) A course in which 

 plants and animals are taken up in accordance with the seasons, 

 or one in which they are studied in the order of their complexity, 

 beginning with the simplest and proceeding to the higher forms? 

 (3) A course in systematic biology, or one in nature-study, fol- 

 lowing somewhat the lines of the course you would be expected to 

 teach in the grades?" 



Following are the results : Biology, 63 per cent. ; botany and 

 zoology separate, 37 per cent.; order of seasons, 62 per cent.; 

 order of complexity, 38 per cent.; nature-study, 82 per cent.; 

 systematic biology, 18 per cent. 



In conclusion the following summary may briefly state my 

 opinion in this matter: The nature of the preparation which my 

 experience with teachers indicates would be most serviceable to 

 them in teaching nature-study, and the kind which I think the 

 teachers themselves feel that they need most, is a course in 

 biologv or nature-study, if one may choose to call it so, in which 

 plants and animals are studied together in accordance with 

 nature's classification by seasons and in which the teacher is 

 taken over somewhat the same ground that she is expected later 

 to lead her pupils. In connection with this there should be 

 constant suggestions regarding the question of method to be 

 employed in the schoolroom, and there should be practice in the 

 training school. If in addition to this, the time allotted allows a 

 broader and more extended survey of the field, the efficiency of 

 the preparation will be increased ; but these other features seem 



