NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY I43 



her do it, and she said that they must be planted six inches deep. 

 Her tuHps always grew so well I thought she must know. Then I 

 read it again in a flower catalogue, and I have tried it myself." 



So every question is a prize, a living, bursting bud ; 

 be careful of it. Make the most and best of it. If the 

 children are really doing something, there will be no end 

 of questions with real purpose in them, and the nature- 

 study period will be the liveliest, most quick-witted and 

 mutually helpful, and the happiest lesson of the day. If 

 they are not actively doing something with nature at first 

 hand, as Froebel says, all will be dull, empty, lazy, dead, 

 and no teacher can lift the load. 



Do not harshly repel him ; show no impatience about his ever- 

 recurring questions. Every harshly repelling word crushes a bud or 

 shoot of his tree of life. Do not, however, tell him in words much 

 more than he could find out himself without your words. For it is, 

 of course, easier to hear the answer from another, perhaps to only 

 half hear and understand it, than it is to seek and discover it himself. 

 To have found out one fourth of the answer by his own effort is of 

 more value and importance to the child than it is to half hear and 

 half understand it in the words of another ; for this causes mental 

 indolence. Do not, therefore, always answer your children's ques- 

 tions at once and directly ; but as soon as they have gathered sufficient 

 strengtii and experience^ furnish them with the means to find the 

 answers in the sphere of their own knowledge. Froebel, Education 

 of Man ^ p. 86. 



But suppose, as often will occur, the question is one 

 that no one knows anything about. If reasonably within 

 their " sphere of knowledge," call for volunteers. Who 

 will try to find this out and tell us about it } The thing 

 we need to develop most in our public education is indi- 

 vidual initiative, power to think and do — resource. If 



