26o Bulletin 159. 



results are secured by means of personal work with the 

 teacher. In this enterprise, as in others, the Department of 

 Public Instruction has efficiently seconded our efforts. An expert 

 nature-study teacher has been emplo3^ed to attend Teacher's 

 Institutes. Since the middle of. last March, when the present law 

 went into effect, this teacher has attended 72 institutes, occupy- 

 ing an average of three periods in each. It is estimated that 

 14,400 teachers have been reached in this way. The teacher not 

 only presents the claims of nature-study, but also the specific 

 means by which it may be taught. Many teachers have a mis- 

 taken idea as to what constitutes nature-study. Some conceive 

 it to be a translation or exaltation of the child's mind to such an 

 altitude that he can be crammed with science from a book and re- 

 tain it in such form as to be capable of giving a reflected light in 

 examinations. Examination seems to be the test of the value of 

 all things educational. Our conception of nature-stud}' is that it 

 should be so informal as not to admit of systematic examination. 

 The central thought is to study the thing itself. Each day tr}^ 

 to see something that was unseen the day before, and with every 

 new thing ask the question, What does it mean and what is its 

 function ? Some examples of nature-study work are now given to 

 show the possibilities of this tj^pe of teaching : 



The head of a burdock can be picked up. Perhaps the hooks were never 

 before closelv examined. Describe them minutelv and make a drawinsr of 

 the seed and hook. Of what use is the hook ? When a child learns the 

 functions of parts of vegetable and animal life, the keenest interest is 

 incited. After the children of Corning had made collection of seeds and 

 classified them upon their methods of dissemination, no hard drill was 

 required to learn the names. After a boy has read " Robinson Crusoe " his 

 geography of the island of Juan Fernandez is very accurate or easily acquired. 

 Interest is the first point. No child is proof against the charm of a story. 

 In the lower grades, the study of the things themselves may be idealized 

 and personified. This can be overdone and made mere sentimentalism. 

 Personification is necessary to kindle an interest, but it need not always be 

 continued. As the child grows older and his powers of observation and 

 reasoning become trained, the process can be intensified so that by the time 

 the intermediate grade has peen passed he will be practically studying pure 

 science. Our observation is that, in the graded schools, we get the most 

 spontaneous work from the fifth, sixth and seventh grades. 



Nature-study is not the teaching of science, not even of elementary 

 science. It is seeing and understanding the common objects of the external 



