SCHOOL DEPARTMENT 



Edited by ALICE HALL WALTER 



Address all communications relative to the work of this depart- 

 ment to the Editor, 67 Oriole Avenue, Providence, R. I. 



ONE WAY TO BEGIN THE NEW YEAR 



THERE is a simple but very effective and much needed method of work 

 which every State Audubon Society would do well to adopt. It consists 

 in making the aims, resources and headquarters of each State Society 

 known to every school, public library and all organized institutions to which 

 such information might be of use, throughout the state. 



A correspondent writes to the point, in describing the work of a high-school 

 boy who is deeply interested in bird- and nature-study. "I happened to be at 

 the Y. M. C. A. one day, when this boy came in and asked for some nature- 

 study literature. I think it was a most unusual request, for the gentleman at 

 the desk looked very much surprised. He passed over The Country Gentleman, 

 which constituted the Y. M. C. A.'s nature library." 



From another correspondent, who lives in the state of New York comes an 

 inquiry as to whether there is an Audubon Society in the state, and if so, what 

 it could do to help a teacher in a rural school. Communications of this kind 

 suggest that our Audubon Societies need to establish a working connection 

 with every village, town and city in their respective states, if they are to fulfil 

 the object for which they were founded. It is not enough to offer a few public 

 lectures each year, to have a succession of field-trips, or to send out traveling- 

 libraries and demonstration material for use in schools. There ought to be 

 and must be a live relation between the Society and each possible cooperator, 

 if nature-study and the conservation of natural resources are to be successfully 

 undertaken and carried to the desired end. When a teacher writes: "I have 

 never found any material so interesting and educational as that you offer. The 

 children love it, and have made a remarkable growth in their love for wild 

 things. Their water-color bird outlines are by far their best efforts in manual 



work" it is a noteworthy indication of the possibilities of the influence 



which Audubon work rightly directed may have in the education of the public. 

 Again and again, comes a message of appreciation of the educational leaflets, of 

 Bird-Lore and Bird-Lore's School Department, and of the value of nature- 

 study. 



The opportunity, so long and earnestly striven for, of creating an "open 

 door" in our schools is here. We need now more effort in the direction of 

 making that door known and used, by keeping it wide open, and by extending a 

 greeting to those who might enter if they knew the way. Each State Society 



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