12 The Nature-Study Idea 



inspiring philosophy running through the day's 

 work than to have a very large bank account. 

 This means that a school should have a soul. 



The reader will understand that I have ap- 

 proached my subject from the side of fact and 

 of experience, not from the side of pedagogical 

 theory or of the psychology of education. Na- 

 ture-study is experience-teaching. In my first 

 work and writing on nature-study, I think that I 

 was wholly unconscious of any conflict of my 

 views with the current theories of educational 

 procedure; in fact, the pedagogical theories 

 were unknown to me till they were called to my 

 attention. I had merely set forth my convic- 

 tions, resulting from many years of teaching, to 

 the effect that the best way to teach nature sub- 

 jects is to begin with good simple observation 

 rather than with dissection, classification, theo- 

 rizing or memorizing. I think that the same 

 process should be followed in the training of 

 the teacher himself. I doubt whether saturation 

 in the psychology of pedagogy affords a good 

 start for the training of a teacher. I observe an 



