166 Second Conference 



a college or university, I should like to make one 

 suggestion to those who have the arranging of them. 

 Cannot these courses be continued practically round 

 the year, perhaps beginning in March and ending in 

 November? As far as my experience goes, they are 

 often planned for the winter months only. When 

 April comes and things begin to grow, then the 

 Nature courses come to an end. I know that many 

 County Councils arrange for summer-holiday courses, 

 but the number of teachers who are able to attend 

 these must always be limited. They entail rather 

 elaborate preparations, and a good deal of work has 

 to be got through in three weeks. It seems as though, 

 especially in rural districts, these courses, often begun 

 during the winter, might be continued on summer 

 evenings when the teachers are not quite so busy, and 

 when field-excursions can be undertaken with very 

 little difficulty. If it were possible to arrange for these 

 courses to last round the year the teacher would have 

 the opportunity of carrying on continued observations. 

 He would be able to note the trees, the flowers, the 

 animals in spring, summer, autumn, and winter. 



Surely a teacher who had gone through such a 

 course of practical lessons in the class-room and in 

 the fields would have learned, to some extent at any 

 rate, how to become an observer. 



