30 THE NATURE-STUDY IDEA 



exercises are not to be the dominant work in 

 the school. They are, or should be, only inci- 

 dental. The formal school work will supply the 

 drill in method and system ; nature-study will 

 afford relaxation, and it will be valuable because 

 it is short and forceful. But, as a matter of fact, 

 nature-study will nearly always be consecutive in 

 subject-matter because the teacher will feel himself 

 most competent in one or two lines and will 

 devote himself chiefly to them; or the consecu- 

 tiveness may be that of the seasons, following 

 the wild life of the neighborhood. The gist of 

 it all is that the mere exercises in nature-study are 

 only a means to an end : it is the nature-study 

 spirit, not that exercise nor this, that is to correct 

 and to enliven educational ideals. The given 

 exercise may be secondary to other subjects of the 

 school day, but the point of view — the way of 

 thinking — that it inculcates is fundamental and 

 will pervade the school or the home. 



My remarks on methods are meant, of course, to 

 apply to children. As the pupil advances, the work 

 will naturally become more systematic, until, in the . 

 high school, it may develop into science-teaching. 

 Those who complain that nature-study is desultory 

 are really thinking of science, not of nature-study. 

 Although not the teaching of science, as such, 

 nature-study is not unscientific. 



Nature-study not only educates, but it educates 

 nature- ward; and nature is ever our companion, 

 whether we will or no. Even though we are 

 determined to shut ourselves in an office, nature 



