Rea makes with the accomplishment of today shows that work has 

 been developed along all the lines marked out, we do not claim 

 in an ideal way, but surely in such a manner as will lead to un- 

 limited usefulness. One step beyond the ideal we find in the 

 Charleston Nature Study Course and all that it implies. 



No book has yet been written on nature study which is adapted 

 to the use of schools in the southern states. Mr. W. K. Tate 

 offers excellent suggestions in his Teacher's Manual for the Ele- 

 mentary Schools of South Carolina, but the only books giving 

 graded courses are written to meet northern climatic conditions. 

 A nature study course which heralds the bluebird as typifying 

 the return of spring needs modification before being used in a 

 land blessed with a wealth of bluebirds throughout the year. 

 When the public primary schools of Charleston were placed under 

 a primary supervisor last January the first step was taken to- 

 ward the introduction of nature study as a legitimate part of 

 school work. Numerous nature courses were studied and Fred- 

 erick L. Holtz's Nature-study was adopted as a basis. The 

 Charleston Nature Study Course is a modification of Holtz's 

 courses for the grades, modified to fit floral and faunal conditions 

 in the vicinity of Charleston and certain particular requirements 

 of the Charleston schools. The simplest and most easily secured 

 natural subjects have been chosen for the lower grades. No 

 teacher need lack for material. What cannot be procured readily 

 is supplied through the specimen and picture exhibits lent by the 

 Museum. 



In the lower grades no period is required for the nature study 

 lessons, the object being to correlate with the reading, language, 

 or drawing lesson, or with the morning exercises. So far as pos- 

 sible the course follows the sequence of concrete ideas in the New 

 Education Readers used in the primary grades. Here the rat 

 becomes early a center of interest, followed in due course by the 

 cat and the bat. The introduction of the word rat is made the 

 occasion for some enlargement upon what would with any care- 

 ful teacher be an endeavor to present a clear mental picture of 



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