PEDAGOGICAL 



34i 



the best management of any form of 

 young folks' interest in nature study 

 that the world has ever known. From 

 his example of thus teaching God's 

 Works started the many Chautauquas 

 for teaching God's Word and literary 

 matters. Under the inspiration and in- 

 struction of the first two years of as- 

 tonishing success of The Agassiz 

 Association, the Chautauqua was or- 

 ganized in 1877, and you know how 

 that has spread and how other bands 

 of young people more or less connected 

 with the churches have been organized. 



From the naturalist point of view 

 there were other failures who have 

 profited by the existence of The 

 Agassiz Association Chapters. Not- 

 able among these were the Junior 

 Naturalists of New York State. This 

 organization under the management of 

 Mr. John W. Spencer, familiarly known 

 as "Uncle John," has always been a 

 success. The great good that he has 

 done in getting boys and girls to do 

 and see things for themselves is be- 

 yond the scope of words to measure 

 or to do justice to. Did any strict 

 school-wise man attempt by any or- 

 ganization of teachers in any line of 

 work ever anywhere nearly equal the 

 wonderful achievements of The Audu- 

 bon Societies and The Humane Socie- 

 ties? The secret of their success has 

 been, like that of The Agassiz Associa- 

 tion — organizing the young people, 

 encouraging them and giving them aid 

 when it is needed and then letting them 

 do things for themselves. In Rhode 

 Island, although it is a little state, 

 scarcely less has been the success of 

 the Nature Guards, an organization in 

 connection with the State College of 

 Agriculture under the management of 

 Prof. Fred W. Card. Here the same 

 principles have applied ; when the boys 

 and girls have been encouraged to 

 realize that they knew something them- 

 selves, and that some trained teacher 

 does not know it all ; and the young 

 folks have been given the impression 

 that they are not overshadowed by a 

 mountain of knowledge, the work has 

 been a success. 



In New Jersey quite recently the 

 same thing has been demonstrated by 



Mrs. Georgiana Klingle Holmes in the 

 organization known as The La Rue 

 Holmes Nature Lovers' League. She 

 has not so much tried to teach as to 

 organize and set boys and girls to 

 work for themselves, and here again 

 the wisdom of this plan has been dem- 

 onstrated. If further arguments were 

 needed I might be excused from per- 

 sonally pointing to my own "Nature 

 and Science" of "St. Nicholas" and to 

 the "St. Nicholas League." The work 

 of these young people for the last 

 eleven years has astonished the world, 

 and the whole secret of this success 

 has been simply encouragement to the 

 young folks to do things for them- 

 selves. Such an authority as John 

 Burroughs has strongly denounced the 

 school teaching of nature study. He 

 says, "I should not try to teach but 

 should introduce nature and the young 

 people to each other and let an under- 

 standing and intimacy spring up be- 

 tween them." 



So overwhelming is the logic of the 

 whole situation that we should discon- 

 tinue this pedagogical, perfunctory, 

 cut-and-dried routine, whack-it-into- 

 their-heads method of many teachers 

 to teach nature study. Sit down and 

 let the child teach you. Be a learner 

 and an enthusiastic one in this wonder- 

 ful world. At the very best we all can 

 encompass but little of it. 



I do not say that the AA Chapters 

 are the only organizations in existence 

 that have successfully solved this prob- 

 lem, but I do say that these Chapters 

 and the allied organizations have for 

 thirty-five years demonstrated to older 

 people, who for the last twenty years 

 have been trying to teach nature study, 

 that the thing cannot be taught in the 

 strict sense of the word. Elementary 

 science can be taught thoroughly and 

 systematically, but nature study is 

 elusive, spontaneous, and cannot be put 

 in from the outside but must emanate 

 from the heart. 



All present who were interested in 

 this work were cordially invited to ad- 

 dress the genial editor, Mr. Edward F. 

 Bigelow, at Arcadia, Sound Beach, 

 Conn., for further particulars of the 

 AA organization of young people. 



