1903 Place of '" Nature Study" in Education 199 



lesson period are taken, when, say, after a dose of subtraction 

 or multiplication the children are getting dull and wearied, 

 and if the teacher, to give them a rest, begins to ask the 

 children in this interval about their nature hobbies, and 

 if by judicious questioning and by skilfully dropped hints 

 encourages them and opens out to them new channels of 

 inquiry, then such work may well be accepted as nature 

 study. On the other hand, to give a class of children a 

 primrose apiece, and then to give an object lesson on it, 

 even though the lesson be skilfully given and the children's 

 answers be based on their own individual observation of the 

 specimens in their hands, still such work is not nature study, 

 but rather a lesson in natural science, and should therefore 

 not be allowed to figure as nature study. Those who are 

 interested in nature lore, especially field naturalists, should 

 do everything in their power to prevent the natural history 

 or natural science lessons that are given in schools, how- 

 ever elementary or advanced they may be, and whether 

 scheduled and time-tabled or not, being called " nature 

 study." At a recent conference of science teachers one 

 of the speakers is reported to have said : " I am some- 

 times asked if we take nature study in our school. Well, 

 I must confess we don't take it under that name, but as 

 the botany work is done from nature, and, when possible, 

 from living- plants, I think we have a right to call it nature 

 study if we wish to do so." This shows that what must be 

 made perfectly clear to all who hold such opinions is, that 

 nature study is not in the slightest degree concerned with 

 any form of physical, meteorological, geological, botanical, or 

 zoological teaching. What it desires to further is that close 

 intimacy with nature, that vividness of outlook which is the 

 foundation of the craft or lore of the shepherd and game- 

 keeper, the farmer and gardener, the sportsman and scout, and 

 the fancier and field naturalist. Our forefathers carefully 

 watched the various connections between natural objects, 

 so that the fields and lanes, flowers and trees, birds and 

 beasts, became the pages of their almanac. No form of 

 science teaching can ever give to a boy or girl this lore, it 

 must be personally acquired by direct contact with nature, 

 and " nature study " is the term applied to the attempt to 



