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petence, or to inadequate preparation by the training schools and 
normal schools. Most of the teachers know better and could 
do better, and chafe under the existing situation. ‘They are, 
however, required to teach lessons on a wide variety of natural 
objects, but not one of these objects is supplied to the teacher 
for such a purpose. Neither is money given for their purchase; 
there is not even an appropriation in the annual budget of the 
Board of Education for supplying material for the nature study 
work. High schools are supplied with material for biological 
work, but the elementary schools with none at all. On the 
face of it, is it not absurd and preposterous to require a teacher 
in a school on the lower east side of Manhattan, for example, 
to teach lessons on the early spring flowers, and then make 
not the slightest provision for supplying her with the neces- 
sary material for that study? 
On February 18, 1913, the Committee on Studies of the 
Board of Education held a public hearing on the proposition 
to eliminate nature study as a separate subject from the public 
schools of the city. Representatives were present from many 
city institutions, and ‘The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences 
was represented by its director, Prof. Franklin W. Hooper, by 
Mr. ky. L. Morris, on behalf of the Institute Museum, and by 
Dr. C. Stuart Gager, on behalf of the Brooklyn Botanic Gar- 
den. Prof. Hooper and Mr. Morris spoke on behalf of the 
Institute and the Museum. 
During the course of the discussion it became evident that 
the Committee on Studies still kept an open mind on the question 
at issue, and that they felt the immediate need to be, not the 
elimination of all nature study from the schools, but a revision 
and improvement of the work, as to both method and content. 
One who had studied the current course of study, and the sylla- 
bus on nature study adopted by the Board of Superintendents in 
October, 1905, and revised in July, 1907, and who had come into 
personal contact with the work as actually carried on in the 
elementary schools, could hardly disagree with such an attitude 
on the part of the Committee. 
On account of the number of speakers at the hearing, and 
the lateness of the hour, the representative of the Botanic Gar- 

