& 
a cause for genuine concern to all who appreciate both the edu- 
cational and informational value of a study of nature at first 
To the friends of nature study, the proposition seems 
hand. 
To many friends of the children 
little less than preposterous. 
and to many leading educators the change would mean nothing 
less than an educational blunder. 
It would seem to be an almost self-evident fact that children 
of the city, and especially of a city of the size of Greater New 
York, need, above all others, to be brought into touch with nature 
and natural objects—for their own sake, to say nothing of the 
ucational value of the study. 
From a wide experience as a teacher, and especially from 
a careful study of the local situation, the writer can affirm, with 
some assurance, that in many, if not in all, schools, real nature 
To be sure, there are 
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study has never yet been introduced. 
class periods devoted to work which is labeled “nature study,” 
but the actual accomplishment is, in too many cases, a travesty 
on the name. Class exercises are held in which the teacher 
endeavors to impart information about some natural object, 
but this, of itself, does not necessarily constitute nature study. 
The writer visited a class in a local public school in which 
the teacher was giving a review lesson on “the dog.” The first 
question asked was, “Jenny, what is a dog?” Poor little Jenny 
arose from her seat, staggered and ignorant, started several 
times a sentence beginning with the words, “A dog is an animal 
with four legs,” but could go no further, and sat down in con- 
fusion. Jenny, whose father probably owned a dog, and who 
probably passed several of the genus Canis every day on her 
way to and from school, could not tell what a dog is. On inquiry, 
the writer was informed that, in teaching the lesson originally, 
This is not a 
jean 
no dog, and no picture of a dog, was present. 
unique instance, but may be taken as fairly representative of 
much that is done under the name of nature study. But the 
situation is equally discouraging with reference to all objects. 
The pupils are taught about nature, but are not taught nature 
are not brought into actual contact with things themselves. 
In justice to the teachers, it should here be emphasized 
that this condition of affairs is to almost no extent due to incom- 
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