6i8 Home Nature- Study Course. 



IN NATURE-STUDY TELLING IS NOT TEACHING. 



"Persons hesitate, fearing that they zvill make a mistake. A teacher 

 asked me the other day where he should begin zvith nature work. He had 

 been considering the matter for two or three years, he said, but did not 

 know how to undertake it. I replied, Begin! Head end, tail end, in the 

 middle — but Begin! There are tzvo essential epochs in any enterprise — to 

 begin, and to get done." 



"There can be no objection to the poetic interpretation of nature. It 

 is essential only that the observation be correct and the inference reason- 

 able, and that we allozv it only at proper times. In teaching science we 

 may confine ourselves to scientific formulas, but in teaching nature we 

 may admit the spirit as well as the letter." 



"The child should be set at those things that are zuithin its own sphere 

 and within the range of its poivcrs. Much so-called nature-study teaching 

 is merely telling the child zvhat some man has found out." 



"Thoroughness consists only in seeing something accurately and 

 understanding zvhat it means. IVe can never knozv all that there is to be 

 learned about any subject." 



"One is not superficial merely because he does not delve deep into 

 subject-matter. He should try to be accurate as far as he goes." 



"I zvould not have every teacher teach nature-study any more than 

 I would have every one teach grammar. Every pupil should have nature- 

 study under one name or another, but he shoidd receive his inspiration 

 from the teacher who himself is so full of the subject that he teaches zmth 

 spirit and zvith cheerfulness." 



L. H. Bailey in The Nature Study Idea. 



