EDUCATION 519 



of city children, this thing that we call natural beauty, of the natural 

 world around us, passes them by. They become adults without ever 

 having seen and appreciated, ever having felt a bit of natural beauty. 



I happen to know from a very long experience with children who 

 have not had any exposure to natural beauty, that when they are 

 finally taken into it, it is almost overpowering. We know in every 

 field of education that this appreciation we are talking about can be 

 aroused, and can be developed by the great teachers that Loren Eise- 

 ley talks about, almost ad infinitum. 



Now, going down to something that is practical. The vast ma- 

 jority of children in the United States live in urban situations. Since 

 we know that the very finest teacher in the world about nature is 

 nature itself, and that if we want to get this exposure and get this 

 finest teaching in the world, then we must take the child to see 

 nature. It is not enough to show a child a fish in an aquarium or 

 a picture of a wild flower, or something else by using a slide or a 

 motion picture; the essential thing, life, is absent in these attempts 

 at natural beauty. If we want them to develop a feeling of natural 

 beauty then we must take children where there is something of 

 natural beauty. So, since we are talking about the urban areas 

 now, I think, as Mrs. Saunders said, there should indeed be a crash 

 program and that we should stop talking about why we should teach 

 children the aspects of the environment in which natural beauty 

 exists. 



Since 1944 such a program has been demonstrated by the Na- 

 tional Audubon Society. We think we have an answer in the educa- 

 tional Nature Center, an area set aside for just this purpose and 

 staffed with trained teacher-naturalists. It is an outdoor laboratory 

 to which school teachers can bring their classes; scout leaders, their 

 troops; parents, their children. 



Our Society now operates five model Audubon Centers. We 

 realize, however, that through our own resources, we cannot pos- 

 sibly establish or operate enough of these "green islands for learning" 

 to make a dent in the needs of this vast nation of nearly 200 million 

 inhabitants. So we have a Nature Centers Division which acts as 

 an extension arm of the Society. This Division is working through- 

 out the nation to sell the concept, and to provide technical assistance 

 to local groups and agencies that, with their own resources, are estab- 

 lishing their own "green islands for learning." 



I recommend, therefore, establishing one or more Nature Centers 

 in every sizable city. In addition to the Nature Centers, there is a 



