Teachers' Leaflet. 633 



Nature-Study is not merely the adding of one more thing to a curricu- 

 lum. It is not coordinate zvith geography or reading or arithmetic. 

 Neither is it a mere accessory, or a sentiment, or an entertainment, or a 

 tickler of the senses. It is not "a study." It is not the addition of more 

 "ivork." It has to do zeith the whole point of I'ieik' of elementary educa- 

 tion, and therefore is fundamental. It is the full expression of person- 

 ality. It is the practical zeorking out of the extension idea that has been. 

 so much a part of our time. More than any other recent moz'ement, it 

 zeill reach the masses and revive them. In time it zvill transform our 

 ideals and then transform our methods. 



A^ature-Study stands for directness and naturalness. It is aslouisliing, 

 zehen one comes to think of it, hoze indirect and haze unrelated to the liz'es 

 of pupils much of our education has been. Geographies begin t. ith the earth, 

 and Himlly. perhaps, come dozen to some concrete and familiar object or 

 scene that the pupil can understand. Arithmetic has to do zeifh brokerage 

 and partnerships and partial paymejits and other things that mean nothing 

 to the child. Botany has to do zeith cells and protoplasm and cryptograms. 

 History deals zeith political affairs, and only rarely comes dozen to the 

 physical facts and to those ez'ents that have to do zeith the real lives of the 

 people : and yet political and social affairs are only the results of expres- 

 sions of the zeay in zehich people liz'e. Readers begin zeith mere literature 

 or zeith stories of things that the child zvill never see or do. Of course, 

 these statements are meant to be only general, as illustrating zehat is even 

 yet a great fault in educational methods. There are many exceptions, and 

 these are becoming commoner. Surely, the best education is that zehich 

 begins zvitJi the materials at hand. A child asks zehat a stone is before 

 it asks zvhat the earth is. 



There are tzeo zeays of interpreting nature — by zeay of fact and by 

 ivay of fancy. To the scientist and to tJie average man tlie interpretation 

 by fact is often the only admissible one. He may not be open to argu- 

 ment or conziction that there can be any other truthful zeay of knozving 

 the external zvorld. Vet, the artist and the poet knoze this zvorld, and 

 they do not knozv it by mere knozveldge or by analysis. It appeals to 

 them in its moods, not in its details. ]'et it is as real to them as to the 

 analyist. Too much are zee of this generation, tied to mere phenomena. 



