SECOND ANNUAL MEETING 83 



tions during- the summer vacation and all voted for a continuation of 

 the study during the present school year. 



I have never taught a school where I did not have bird stvidy and I 

 have never heard an objection. It is not a good plan to annovmce the 

 first daj' of school that you intend to introduce bird study into the 

 school. Such a course will arouse a storm of opposition. Just start 

 it very gradually after you have the school well under control and no 

 one will suspect an innovation until you have the pupils converted and 

 the patrons realize the value in the added interest of the children in 

 their school work. And renienil)er that bird protection should be the 

 keynote. 



The state laws protecting game and song birds should be discussed 

 and better ones proposed. Spring- shooting of migrants should be dis- 

 couraged. Superstitions about birds should be exposed. Errors in 

 popular ideas should be corrected. Prejudices should be overcome but 

 truth must prevail. A love of the birds must not blind one to the fact 

 that some are destructive to the agricultural and horticultural inter- 

 ests of the state. A healthy sentiment in favor of the birds in the 

 schoolroom will down the boy who shoots Meadowlarks just for fun 

 and he will be an outcast until he reforms. 



I would urge every member of this Union to think upon this matter 

 and do something to encourage the study of birds in the schools of this 

 state. Our constitution gives this as one of the objects of the Union's 

 existence, and yet as an association I fear we have done very littl* for 

 the teachers of our liublic schools. The time is passing rapidly. Every 

 year hundreds of boys and girls are finishing- the courses and leaving 

 the schools of Nebraska. They know nothing- of the value of our 

 bird fauna and in their strivings to become real men and women they 

 imitate their vices as well as their virtues and join the ranks of bird 

 destroyers, the men for sport and pleasure, the women for decora- 

 tion. As students of bird life and champions of its protection our 

 duty is plain and if future generations blame ns and we attempt an 

 excuse they will mock us by repeating our big words and showing our 

 little deeds. The school is the field and we are responsible for the 

 harvest. What shall it be? 



BIRDS AS OBJECTS OF STUDY IN THE GRADES 



CIIAS. FORDYCE, UNIVERSITY PLACE 



[This iiaper was i>rinted as numbers three and four of a series of pam- 

 phlets entitled Nature Study in the Elementary Schools, prepared by 

 Professor Fordyce and issued by the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 

 tion of Lancaster county, dated respectively November and December, 

 1900, and is not here reprinted. — Editor.] 

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