244 The Nature-Study Idea 



It is not the teacher alone or the schoolhouse 

 alone that we need to improve. We have talked 

 about the little red schoolhouse; but the little 

 red schoolhouse (as one of my farmer friends 

 puts it) is likely to contain the little green 

 teacher. 



Is nature-study on the wane? 



Real nature-study cannot pass away. But 

 the more closely we come into touch with nature 

 the less do we publish the fact abroad. We 

 may hear less about it, but it will be because we 

 are living nearer to it and have ceased to feel 

 the necessity of advertising it. 



Teaching may not be nature-study merely 

 because it is so called. A superintendent told 

 me that he had forbidden nature-study in his 

 schools. I asked him what the work had been. 

 He said that it was the dissecting of cats. A 

 publisher told me that nature-study is passing 

 out. I asked why he thought so. He replied 

 that his nature-study books were not selling as 

 well as they did. I told him that I was glad. 



Much that is called nature-study is only 



