Inquiries and Answers 175 



that much of the most fundamental nature- 

 study concerns dead matter, e.g., the simple 

 chemical and physical changes that water and 

 air undergo in relation to daily life."] 



If nature-study is a way of teaching, then we 

 ought not to expect ever to arrive at a complete 

 agreement of opinion and practice. At the 

 present time we are not even united on the 

 fundamental educational questions involved, 

 although we are gradually coming nearer to a 

 consensus of opinion. 



Many persons expect to find in the United 

 States a great number of schools in which nature- 

 study is taught, meaning by that to find separate 

 classes set aside for this particular kind of 

 work. In very many schools this will be found; 

 but I suspect the greatest results in the end are 

 to come when the nature-study mode or method 

 runs through the teaching of all the accustomed 

 subjects in the school, gradually reorganizing 

 and revitalizing them. 



A school with one teacher can handle nature- 

 study work as well as the school with twenty 



