NATURAL SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 671 



can not be obtained," the teachers will reply : " Several towns 

 have already appropriated ten and twenty dollars for the pur- 

 chase of natural history collections, and these can be used a num- 

 ber of years. Teachers awakened to the new and beautiful reve- 

 lations of nature are preserving specimens at the sea-shore and in 

 the country. Children have collected hundreds of specimens 

 which have been used in class work, or have helped to form valu- 

 able school cabinets." 



When, again, it is said, " Our teachers have not been trained 

 by the ' natural method ' ; how, then, can you expect them to teach 

 by it ? " they will answer : " We know from experience the defects 

 of the old methods ; is it not possible, then, for us to shun these 

 defects, and to teach by better, more effective methods ? The 

 fossilization of teachers is not in order. We must grow, for 

 growth is the necessity, if not the charm, of the teacher's life of 

 to-day." 



Again, when it is said, " Too much observational work results 

 in lack of mental concentration and in weak power of memoriz- 

 ing," they will assert : " The time for considering the results of 

 ' too much observational work ' has not yet come, nor is the dan- 

 ger so imminent as to concern us now. The criticism offered may 

 be true of much poor oral instruction which ^entertains' chil- 

 dren, but it can not be true of elementary science work, the very 

 soul of which finds verbal expression in the words individual 

 effort — such effort as is only possible when the mental faculties 

 are under control." 



It is true the mission of the science lesson is not to strengthen 

 the memory. The studies of literature and language do this, 

 while the science lesson quickens the perceptive faculties and cul- 

 tivates the power of delicate discrimination and of just generali- 

 zation. 



Finally, when it is urged that "*the object of this teaching is 

 to make naturalists of our children," they will emphasize the fact 

 that while the object of advanced biological teaching may be to 

 make specialists of those who have an aptitude for this work, the 

 object of elementary science work must be, always and ever, the 

 training of the young mind. We are just beginning to find out 

 that a one-sided system of education is not sufficient for our 

 many-sided human nature. We are not all born to be teachers, 

 or professors of law or medicine ; we have among us natural me- 

 chanics, merchants, inventors, investigators ; and a system of in- 

 struction which is not broad enough to train these for a life of 

 productive industry falls far short of what it ought to do. Edu- 

 cation must have its industrial and scientific as well as its classical 

 side, and not until it does will each child realize its own bright 

 possibility of a better and more enlightened humanity. 



