4o8 Bird -Lore 



a few letters asking for appointments with superintendents. No replies came. 

 My next move was to appear before a superintendent unannounced and pre- 

 sent the matter with as much earnestness as if I had been a commercial trav- 

 eler selling goods. Of the first ten superintendents I called upon, four could 

 see nothing to be gained in bird-study by the children, and frankly told me 

 so. One became enthusiastic and invited me to talk before his teachers, and 

 later to the children. The other five referred me to their "nature-study" 

 teachers, with the consent that these teachers might try a class if they saw fit 

 to do so. They did, and it didn't take either one a minute to decide and say so. 

 Each regarded the Audubon leaflets as an especially good opportunity for the 

 children, and classes were formed forthwith. 



This gave me the key to open the way for bird-study in Ohio schools. 

 These nature-study teachers, usually young women, had made a specialty 

 of biology in their preparation for teaching, and were therefore capable of 

 understanding the great advantage of bird-study for the children, and espe- 

 cially by the use of these splendid Audubon leaflets. Whenever one of these 

 nature-study teachers formed a Junior Audubon Class in a school, and dis- 

 tributed the leaflets and badges, bird-study became highly contagious. 



Personal letters and a few specimen leaflets were sent to the nature-study 

 teachers at different points of the state, which started the work nicely, and 

 Junior Classes began to be formed in gratifying numbers, and there were more 

 requests that I come and talk before schools, clubs, classes and churches, 

 than I could possibly think of undertaking. 



One superintendent to whom I presented the plan of bird-study for the 

 chfldren dramatically threw up his hands and exclaimed "Well! What next? 

 We are expected to teach the children everything from manners to sex hygiene, 

 everything from how to stand on their heads in the gymnasium to how to 

 brush their teeth at home, and now here is a scheme for forming bird classes. 

 Pray, when will we teach school?" It is best to omit my reply. He said what 

 other superintendents thought and would have said, if they could have said 

 it as well on the spur of the moment. 



Requests for information for forming Junior Classes were daily coming 

 into the office, however, and classes were being formed in ever-increasing 

 numbers, when thoughts of vacation and the work of closing school put on the 

 the brakes and brought the work to a standstill, 



A new opportunity now arose for getting our work widely presented. Our 

 State Commissioner of Schools, Mr. Frank W. Miller, who had been friendly 

 toward the work from the first, invited me to meet with the Supervisors of 

 Agriculture at the Teachers' Annual Convention held at Cedar Point, the last 

 of June. I gladly made use of the opportunity and met the Commissioner 

 and supervisors. These up-to-date men were quick to see the advantage of 

 bird-study in combination with elementary agriculture, and were heartily 

 in sympathy with the use of the Audubon leaflets. In a short time it was 



