32 THE NATURE-STUDY IDEA 



We must not allow our fancy to run away with 

 us. If we hitch our wagon to a star, we must 

 ride with mind and soul and body all alert. When 

 we ride in such a wagon, we must not forget to 

 put in the tail-board. 



Another most important result of the nature- 

 study movement will be its effect, along with 

 manual-training and other forces, in gradually 

 overturning present systems of schoolwork. The 

 system of memorizing from books will eventually 

 have to go. The pupil will first be put into 

 sympathetic contact with objects, not put into 

 books. In many ways we are now in a transition 

 period in our school systems. For one thing, we 

 are living in an era of the material equipment of 

 schools — the erecting of magnificent buildings, 

 the gathering of extensive outfits. This is true 

 of colleges and universities as well as of the 

 common schools. When this era is past, we shall 

 have more money to spend for teachers. Teaching 

 will be a profession requiring better training and 

 commanding more pay, and men teachers will 

 come back to it. 



In this evolved and emancipated school, the 

 nature-study spirit will prevail, even though the 

 name itself be lost. This spirit stands for 

 naturalness and the natural method, for freedom, 

 spontaneity, individual initiative, because it deals 

 first-hand with actual things. It stands for doing 

 and accomplishing. It is the active and creative 

 method. It is a developing of the powers of the 

 pupil, not hearing him recite. In spirit and 



