132 



Till'; CA IDE TO NATURE 



A Retrospect of the Report. 



The financial report of The Agassiz 

 Association with certificates of the 

 auditors, on page 27 of our May num- 

 ber, is worth)- of careful consideration. 

 It shows several important facts: 



1. Thai The Guide to Nature 

 cosl $3037.33, and brought in $2111.8] 

 — deficit of $925,52. This was made 

 Up by A.\ dues and contributions. The 

 logical conclusion is that this maga- 

 zine is distributed for the good it may 

 do, and unless you are a member of 

 the A A or have made a gift to it, you 

 have not been aiding in this cost. 



2. The subscription that you pay is 

 not equal to the cost of what you 

 receive. 



3. That the president of the AA and 

 the members of his family, who most 

 intimately see the workings of the or- 

 ganization, have such faith in the AA 

 that they work without pecuniary pay 

 and in addition contribute $666.53. 



4. That the report is an open invi- 

 tation for you to cooperate in the 

 work and to aid it. 



Doing vs. Saying. 



I believe it no exaggeration or mis- 

 representation to state that the great 

 effort of the schools is to train their 

 pupils to say correctly rather than to 

 do efficiently. And I shall not con- 

 tend that it is not important to say 

 things correctly. But should that be 

 made the chief desideratum? Per- 

 haps the schools should deal more 

 with the mental than with the physi- 

 cal ; should train the brain more than 

 the muscles. 



But the school should not omit all 

 muscular doing, and be content with 

 merely a little muscular exercise — in 

 the perhaps ten minutes a day of cal- 

 isthenics. 



Xor should nature study be limited 

 to observation and the muscular exer- 

 cise of an occasional outing. 



In recent years there has been much 

 pedagogical fondling of an overworked 

 term, correlation, in connection with, 

 nature study. 



Nature interests have been so corre- 

 lated in geography, grammar, music 



(ad nauseam), language and even 

 mathematics that hardly a vestige of 

 nature interest remains. One text- 

 hook of nature study actually has 

 mental arithmetic based on such 

 things as the number of rings in the 

 abdomen of a dragon fly, the joints in 

 the antennae of butterflies, the petals 

 ot flowers. 



The teaching of nature may safely 

 be correlated with athletics and man- 

 ual training. A five mile walk in 

 "search of objects one loves," up the 

 hill, down the ravine and across the 

 fields, is better than the same distance 

 around and around in pursuit of one 

 monotonous ball. 



Correlating nature, by aid of a good 

 set of tools, in making plant boxes, 

 bird houses and insect nets is better 

 than engraving Chinese hieroglyphics 

 or carving "patent bootjacks." The 

 real in the training of the hand and the 

 eye is better than the fanciful. 



A visitor at a manual training school 

 intently watched a rattle-brained boy 

 carelessly manipulating a plane on a 

 board while he himself was grinning 

 at his mates. Finally the youngster 

 inquired smartly, "Do you like to see 

 me plane?" 



"No," was the reply : "I am pained 

 to see that you are not planing but 

 merely making shavings." 



Manual training that does not give 

 thought, aim and zest in something to 

 be used is merely making sawdust, 

 bits of chips and shavings. 



There is no better realm for the use 

 of tools than in making apparatus for 

 outdoor work or nature interests. The 

 window box that you make grows the 

 best plants ; the bird box of your own 

 invention and handicraft is occupied 

 by the most lovable bird. 



So a bench and set of tools, such as 

 presented to the Agassiz Association 

 by the Hammacher, Schlemmer Com- 

 pany, New York City, is as immedi- 

 ately within the scope of our work and 

 as fitting in our laboratory as is a 

 microscope or a camera. 



In many respects it is fully as en- 

 joyable, even for the girls. Every girl 

 should know how to saw a board, plane 



