142 Second Conference 



who live in the country should, when they leave 

 school, find themselves in sympathy with their sur- 

 roundings, and should be able to take an intelligent 

 interest in the pursuits and occupations which are 

 open to those whose lives and homes are in the 

 country ". Or as Sir George Kekewich said in 

 Circular 369, under date June 25th, 1895, such object- 

 lessons " make the lives of the children more happy 

 and interesting by opening up an easily-accessible 

 and attractive field for the exercise of brain, hand, 

 and eye. It gives the children an opportunity of 

 learning the simplest natural facts, and directs their 

 attention to external objects, making their education 

 less bookish. It further develops a love of nature 

 and an interest in living things." With the general 

 tenor of these remarks we are presumably in com- 

 plete sympathy. The value of Nature-study lies not 

 chiefly in the imparting of a particular kind of infor- 

 mation ; it consists not so much in what is taught as 

 in fostering an attitude of mind, an attitude of ob- 

 servational alertness, of enquiry into the meaning of 

 familiar facts in garden, field, and hedgerow, of sus- 

 ceptibility to the subtle influences of Nature in her 

 winter sleep, her vernal awakening, her summer 

 maturity, and all the cycle of her changing moods. 



I said just now that the value of Nature-study does 

 not chiefly lie in affording a particular kind of infor- 

 mation. If we compare human education with the 

 practical training of animals for their life's work, one 

 salient distinction stands out boldly. With animals 

 things acquire meaning only through direct and first- 

 hand experience; but with children this direct ex- 

 perience may and should be supplemented by infor- 



