192 THE NA TU RE-STUD Y RE VIE W [ 4:&-shpt., 1908 



are afraid of leaving dangling threads, afraid of unsolved problems. 

 It is hard to have them realize that problem solving is the very 

 life of nature-study, that it does not matter how long it takes to 

 solve a problem so long as the children are intelligently investi- 

 gating and earnestly working. 



A word about physics and chemistry as nature-study material: 

 I fully agree with some of the speakers that plants and animals 

 must constitute the bulk of our nature-study material. Never- 

 theless, I do not agree that these should be studied exclusively, 

 or that they toucli the lives of the children more closely than 

 material gathered from the field of physics and chemistry. What 

 could touch the lives more closely than the heating, lighting and 

 ventilation of the home, water supply, and weather phenomena? 

 We have found nothing that has been worked out with more 

 interest and profit on the part of the children than the simple 

 principles underlying the working of the every-day appliances of 

 the home. 



IX 



By DORA HARGITT 

 Hamilton, Ohio 



It has been said that "nature-study is, not botany, is not 

 entomology, is not ornithology, it is none of the 'ologies,' is not 

 science." I think, however, that for the teacher it is all these and 

 more ; so let us have the course for her preparation made as heavy 

 and full as possible. But for the child in the school let us have as 

 little formality as possible in the study of nature. Rather let us 

 as far as possible send the child into the fields to see for himself 

 and then to return to report what he has seen of interest. Thus 

 we may arouse "the seeing eye, the hearing ear and the feeling 

 heart" of the child and make him a better moral and intellectual 

 being. 



