KANE] NATURE-STUDY IN MILWAUKEE AND VICINITY 7 



will be more interested in plant and animal evolution and structure 

 as a consequence of the preliminary nature training, while his little 

 lessons in physiography will bear the same relation to his geology. 

 Science has been making such great strides of advancement in 

 recent years that the demand for scientifically trained men and 

 women to fill a variety of positions is greater than it has ever been. 

 The nature-study may lead some child toward the pursuit of a 

 scientific education who might otherwise never realize he would 

 have a liking for that kind of work. 



In teaching nature in the Milwaukee public schools the teacher 

 labors at a decided disadvantage under the meager and impractical 

 course of study supplied her. The entire course consists of 

 vegetables, flowers, trees, and birds. With the exception of birds, 

 animal life has been entirely neglected. It would be more practi- 

 cal for a Milwaukee child to study about the horse or the toad than 

 the cedar waxwing. A certain little fifth grade girl who had studied 

 the cedar waxwing lamented because she had never beheld the 

 exquisitely colored creature. Yet she probably never would see it 

 in the heart of the city where she lived ; for the bird is spasmodic 

 in its flight, and its appearance can be depended upon at no certain 

 time or place. It likes to frequent regions abounding in cherries 

 and strawberries; consequently a little girl might have co watt a 

 long time before seeing it in the busy streets of a large city. While 

 a Milwaukee child is spending time on the sea gull or the night- 

 hawk, a small citizen of Sturgeon Bay, a city surrounded by cherry 

 orchards, might study the waxwing quite advantageously. 



If a man could cast out from his life one of his greatest plagues — • 

 the destructive work of insects — ^with that ease and nonchalance 

 that Milwaukee has eliminated insect study from its course, what a 

 cheerful prospect life would present for the future ! I argue that 

 it. would be far more profitable for a city child to be familiar with 

 the habits of himian and household insect pests than dwell at 

 length on the phlox or petunia as he is supposed to do in the second 

 and fourth grades respectively. It is not necessary for a child 

 to spend a great amount of time on the structure of a great variety 

 of flowers, because that sort of work can be more properly taken 

 up in high schools and colleges. The elm-leaf beetle, the plant 

 louse, and the garden slug are more vital problems for the city 

 people than the structure of the geraniimi or the poetulaca work 

 designated for the eighth and fifth grades respectiv-ily. No refer- 



