No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 3»» 



gaziug with iuail<ed utteiilioii at llii' iutei-csted, observant, bright 

 boy of the chiss, as he tells what he has read or seen. This may be 

 studying about nature, but it is not studying nature. 



Nature study is not merely a study of nature, but of nature under 

 natural conditions, so far avS/ this is possible. It is not merely what 

 we study in the school room. Nature belongs out-of-doors, and there 

 we must go to study her in all her beauty and reality. Field lessons 

 are a necessity for the best work. Nature constitutes much of the 

 chiUrs out-of-school environment. He is learning from nature con- 

 sciously or unconsciously, almost continually. Much of what he 

 thus learns out of school hours in nature's school must be utilized 

 in his nature study in school. When we confine nature study to the 

 school room and school house we shut out the best part of nature. 



In order to get the best possible results we would have the chil- 

 dren go to nature instead of the book, watch the swelling bud, the de- 

 veloping seed, the opening flower, note the flight and song of the 

 bird, and peep into its nest, glance at the fly or grasshopper, admire 

 the brilliant coloring of the butterfly. We would have our children, 

 like the butterfly, sip a little here, a little there, taste in this place, 

 and in that place. This is better, very much better; where the child is 

 surrounded by nature, yea, almost immersed in nature, it may be an 

 excellent means of arousing in him the interest and sympathy and 

 spirit which are the first essentials in his best development. It may 

 lay the foundations for science; it is on just such foundations that all 

 science has arisen. But if it stops with taking only a taste, if the 

 knowledge is simply taken in and not digested or assimilated, if it is 

 not expressed in an intelligible way to others, it is only the begin- 

 ning of science. Unless the phenomena are observed or studied in 

 some order, unless their study prepares for and leads to a careful 

 investigation of the relations of the various things observed, unless 

 it results in comparison, in some natural classification by the child, 

 and, finally, in broader and broader generalizations and a better com- 

 prehension of the unity of nature, it is not science. 



The method, if it may be called a method, so prevalent in many of 

 our schools, of studying without plan or sequence anything in nature 

 which may be accessible or convenient, to-day a plant, to-morrow a 

 stone, the next day a bird and so on, may interest the children, may 

 develop and train the teacher, may be a preparation for elementary 

 science; but it is not elementary science, it is not or does not result 

 in "know'ledge classified." To get the best results in elementary 

 science in our schools, we need a clear, definite plan or course of 

 study, with its various parts closely related. 



The work of each grade should be adapted to the children of that 

 grade, based on the work of the preceding grade, and should prepare 

 for the next grade above. Then our w.ork will become in truth, 

 elementary science. 



