INQUIRIES 143 



the library is part of the equipment of the school. 

 There is a general feeling that a new book— par- 

 ticularly a new school-book — is made for the 

 purpose of displacing some other book. I once 

 wrote a book. It seemed to occupy a field for 

 which one of my best friends also had written. 

 This friend wrote that perhaps I was right and he 

 was wrong. I replied that I hoped I was right, 

 but that this did not imply that he was wrong. I 

 hope that we are both right. There is more than 

 one point of view. Teachers sometimes deplore 

 the number of text-books. As a matter of fact, 

 we need more rather than fewer; thereby is there 

 greater likelihood that every teacher can find a 

 book to his liking. I do not believe that we 

 should have uniform methods of teaching any 

 subject in all parts of the country. When one 

 text-book satisfies everybody, it is because every- 

 body is uncritical and unpersonal. 



How shall I acquire sufficient knowledge to enable 

 me to teach nature-study F 



In the same way that you acquire other knowl- 

 edge — by means of work and study. There is no 

 way by which you can dream it or absorb it. 

 There is no excellence without labor. The teacher 

 should know more than he attempts to teach. 



Yet, you must not magnify the importance of 

 mere knowledge. The ambition to teach and the 

 love of doing for a child are the fundamental 

 requisites. My own love of nature was given 

 direction and purpose by a teacher who knew very 

 little about nature ; but she knew how to touch a 



