SO 
sible of introduction to be correlated in part with English and in part 
with geography. We believe that such specimens as are within reach 
may be more profitably used, and that the discussion of topics with which 
the children are fairly familiar will prove of far more value than the 
inatter now required in the present syllabus. 
It was further recommended (p. 10), as follows: “hat 
the present syllabus in nature study be withdrawn, and that the 
subject be taught partly in connection with the English work 
and partly with the geography work.” 
While the committee insisted (p. 10) that it was not their 
purpose to suggest a revolution in the organization of the schools, 
nevertheless the above recommendation practically to eliminate 
nature study from the curriculum can hardly be interpreted as 

otherwise than revolutionary. Moreover, it. is distinetly  dis- 
quieting, not only to those who know from experience the edu- 
cational value of nature study, properly carried on, but also to 
those institutions of Greater New York, such as the American 
Museum of Natural History, the Zoological Park, the Aquarium, 
the New York Botanical Garden, and the Brooklyn Botanic Gar- 
den, which find a large share of their usefulness, and even. to 
a certain extent, of their raison d'étre, in co-operating in this 
work and supplementing it. 
It is within the recent memory of the younger teachers of 
our schools that the struggle was first made, against consider- 
able opposition and prejudice, to secure the introduction of a 
study of nature into elementary schools. And, although the 
literature of nature study has rapidly become voluminous, the 
— 

study itself is so comparatively new, as an integral part of ele- 
mentary instruction, that it may still be considered in the forma- 
tive stage as to content, and to a certain extent, as to method. 
This is in marked contrast to such time-tried subjects as number 
work and language, which have been taught in elementary schools 
from time immemorial. 
It may, however, be affirmed with assurance that nature 
study has been long enough in the schools to justify itself, and 
to demonstrate clearly that it is not a “fad” or a “frill.” To 
have it seriously proposed, therefore, to eliminate the subject 
altogether from the schools, or to make it merely incidental to - 
other work, and that more or less at the option of the teacher, is 
