corson] ELEMENTARY SCIENCE IN NEWARK 22 I 



resources into one place, to properly catalogue the same, and to 

 assign a caretaker. It is expected that the class teachers will 

 systematically arrange their lessons, and call for what they 

 want. Without such a provision the elementary science col- 

 lections are mere curiosities. Throughout the year, it is hoped 

 to keep therein material illustrating germination and pollination 

 and other important phases of botanical study; growing plants, 

 insects in cages, fish, and some other living animals. In the out- 

 lying schools we hope to have a few bird boxes in the yards. 

 They will more than repay the trouble of building them by 

 attracting the birds. 



A few years ago our schools were generously equipped with 

 the "fact nature readers." During the past two years this stock 

 has been reduced by wear as desk books until it is now nearly 

 exhausted, and all requests to replenish have been denied. Most 

 of these books were supplied for the primary grades. It seems 

 almost needless to say that as a means of teaching elementary 

 science they were useless, the children having too small a basis 

 of knowledge founded upon personal observation to make the 

 reading valuable. There can be no reasonable dispute as to the 

 desirability of having children in grades below the sixth, study 

 nature at first hand. In grades above the fifth there is a place 

 for this kind of information reader, the world of the child having 

 expanded beyond that of sense experience and his power of 

 representation having developed so that he can profitably gain 

 knowledge through reading. Even in these grades, however, 

 elementary science should be studied by means of the real object 

 and by experiment, the reader being entirely supplementary. 

 The school of nature teaching represented by the works written 

 by William J. Long and Ernest Thompson Seton has opened a 

 new field for the children, and the pleasure given by books of this 

 class is evident. Interest is aroused in animals as living beings, 

 not as specimens, and sympathy is awakened in such a manner 

 that the inclination to consider their needs, to care for and to 

 protect them is created. They thus harmonize with the end 

 sought in biological study in the elementary school. 



