120 THE PLANT WORLD. 



plants. Unless he be actually blind, or practically so, as a result of 

 the methods in the schools, his mind is constantly questioning these 

 things, for they press upon him from every side; he cannot get away 

 from them. What is this animal or this plant ? What are its habits ? 

 How does it live ? Upon what does it feed, and what feeds upon it ? 

 Why is it found in certain places and not in others ? What are its rela- 

 tion to soil, shade, and moisture? Why are the plants which grow 

 here large and thrifty, while those over there are small and stunted ? 

 Why can I not find two exactly alike ? In what does this animal re- 

 semble others that I have seen, how does it differ from them, and 

 what do these likenesses and differences mean ? In short, wliat are 

 these animals and plants, and liozv Jiave they come to be what they arc ?■ 



These are but a few of the multitude of questions that will be con- 

 stantly coming to one throughout life, and the training which every 

 child receives in the schools should be such as will enable him to take 

 an active and intelligent interest in these questions; for this means not 

 only right thinking, but right living, and he will thus add not only to 

 his own happiness, but to that of others as well by being able to lead 

 them somewhat into a realization of the law and beauty which pervade 

 nature. 



Whatever be the method to follow in teaching biology in the pub- 

 lic schools, every one will admit that it should not be such as will kill 

 off the enthusiasm of the pupil. The child enters the school knowing 

 a good deal already about animals and plants. Every normally con- 

 stituted child is full of the spirit of the naturalist, but I regret to say 

 that the whole tendency of the methods in most of our public schools is 

 to stamp out completely this inquiring spirit ; and this in spite of more 

 or less blind, irrational attempts at "Nature Study" in many of the 

 schools. 



The method should increase rather than diminish the child's inter- 

 est in the animate world. The student should leave school full of in- 

 terest in animals and plants and with the desire and power to continue 

 their study intelligently. 



This, it seems to me, is an absolute essential. The naturalist 

 spirit of the student must not be killed off. Happiness, of one's self 

 and others, is a legitimate object to seek in life. To increase one's 

 lines along which happiness may be secured is one of the most worthy 

 aims of education. He who has the spirit of the naturalist has a great 

 advantage in this regard, for he need never be lonesome, nor will he 

 ever have any time to kill. This is the beauty and great advantage 

 that natural history studies have — that one may have constantly about 

 him his material for investigation, a splendidly equipped laboratory, 

 so long as he lives. 



