FARMERS INSTITUTES. 525 



NATURE STUDY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



BERTHA STOUT, DILLSBORO, IND. 



[Read before the Dillsboro Supplemental Institute.] 



Within the past few years there has arisen a gi-eat enthusiasm in the 

 public schools in the study of nature. Love for and study of nature has 

 always existed and always been approved of, but the study has been 

 rambling and perhaps not so fruitful as we could wish. Now we have a 

 definite work outlined. Even the little children are taught to study plant 

 and animal life, to make collections of leaves, study their forms, colors, 

 etc., to study the seeds of the different plants— see how they are distrib- 

 uted by winds, animals and currents of water, and taught to see the 

 preparations for the different seasons. 



At first the work is very simple and is taught mostly by observation, 

 but as the pupil advances in years it becomes more complex and takes 

 on the form of study. 



In the physiology he is taught in so far as possible to study human 

 life as it really is. In geography he learns about winds and rainfall, 

 different kinds of soil, and see what kind of conditions are necessary for 

 the best growth of the principal plant. He not only studies plant but 

 animal life as well, sees the adaptation of the different animals to their 

 condition in life; how they ai'e fitted by nature to secure the food they 

 have to eat, and how each one is provided with means by which it may 

 defend itself. He is taught to obsei've animals for himself, and then to 

 tell what he has seen. 



There is surely a revival of the love of nature abroad in the world 

 today. The book stores show it, teeming as they do with books on ferns, 

 mushrooms, birds, stars, etc. School journals show it, giving as they do 

 splendid articles on nature study, devoting one department, at least, to 

 nature study pure and simple, each month bringing forth something ap- 

 propriate to be studied at that particular season of the year, songs on 

 nature, gems of thought concerning it, and many, many more interesting 

 things that I may not take time to mention. 



Although the school curriculum is such that as yet nature study has 

 not been put on a sound pedagogic basis, still the child is able to learn 

 much of it as he studies the revised text-books on other subjects, for 

 they give it a very prominent place. 



And yet we need more, not only the child but the adult as well. What 

 a splendid thing it is to be able to read nature, to see God revealed in 

 His works. A love for nature should be instilled into the child from the 

 very beginning and he will afterward live very near to nature's heart. 



