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TJ-IE GUIDE TO NATURE 



him on the Procrustean Bed of an arti- 

 ficial, arbitrary, imaginary ideal. The 

 instructors should study the pupils. In 

 fact, all the studying should be done 

 by the teachers. The children should 



CATBIRDS AND NEST. 



Play only. And only those teachers 

 should be selected who know the Se- 

 cret of Teaching, which is how to make 

 Play out of Work. The one aim should 

 be to Develop what is in a child, and 

 not to cram anything into his brain 

 or trim him, as Japanese trim trees, 

 into some fantastic, conventional 

 shape." 



The VanHyning idea in brief is as 

 follows : to make every school a branch 

 of the State Museum. Those who are 

 intimately acquainted with nature au 

 seldom destructive, and the shortest 

 road to conservation is by way of the 

 public school. The State museum has 

 the facilities for preparation, and ex- 

 pert care of specimens, and by coopera- 

 tion with the school could, if proper 

 provision was made, care for the thou- 

 sands of specimens that are now 

 wasted and make them up into small 

 school collections at a minimum of 



cost. At this central institution du- 

 plicates would be exchanged, and things 

 common in one part of the state ex- 

 changed for those of some other region. 

 This plan if vigorously followed in 

 connection with the present nature 

 study movement, would result in wide- 

 spread interest among the school chil- 

 dren and a greater appreciation of na- 

 ture objects among the rising genera- 

 tion. The accompanying photographs 

 show his plan for educational groups. 

 The birds are shown with their nest 

 and eggs so that by comparison one 

 can identify any that he finds. Similar 

 plans are followed for other branches 

 of natural history. 



Mr. VanHyning seems to have the 

 idea that he is about the homliest man 

 in Iowa, which if correct would be 

 quite a distinction. On the contrary 

 when you know him he has a very 

 attractive personality and is one whom 

 any man may feel proud to call his 

 friend. I have been struck with the 

 likeness of the man in form and figure 

 to that of Lincoln. This is especially 

 noticeable when he is walking away 

 from one. He is all wrapped up in his 

 work, and his salary seems to be only 

 an incident to him rather than the 

 chief end of labor. 



In my opinion, his plan of making 

 each school a branch of the State Mu- 

 seum, if carried out, will be the best 

 thing ever proposed for the advance- 

 ment of education along natural lines. 

 By this plan the children of each com- 

 munity will gather their own material, 

 to be prepared by the State in the la- 

 bratories of its central institution, and 

 later be returned to the school for per- 

 manent preservation. Perhaps a gene- 

 ration will pass before the general 

 adoption of the plan, but if the matter 

 is properly appreciated and sufficiently 

 agitated, it will come into gradual use 

 and each community will have a mu- 

 seum of its own which will increase 

 in usefulness and value with the years, 

 and shortly take its place beside the 

 public library as an educational insti- 

 tution for the masses. 



