252 Fifth Conference 



lane or pond or wood or hedgerow, as has 

 been emphasized by Mr. Rooper, H.M.I., 

 and is supported by Charles Kingsley, who 

 wrote: "He is a thoroughly good naturalist 

 who knows his parish thoroughly". 



(3) That it is well to proceed in this study from 



the wider area to the particular, and, as 

 Lord Avebury urged, to defer specialization 

 till the latest days of school life (at. 17). 



(4) That the treatment of the subject is not to be 



so much didactic on the part of the teacher 

 as heuristic on the part of the pupil, indeed, 

 concurrent study by both. 



(5) That it is undesirable that the proclivities of 



both teacher and child with the general 

 flexibility and variability of the work be 

 cramped by excessive direction and system- 

 ization. 



(6) That while the pupil's own observation, investi- 



gation, and inferences are of paramount 

 importance, imitation has its place, and, 

 as Professor Lloyd Morgan said, "has often 

 proved the stepping-stone to original re- 

 search ". 



(7) That in the general and outdoor study of 



Nature there is a place and a use (though 

 it must be a right place and a right use) for 

 the lecture-room, the laboratory, the text- 

 book; the lantern-slide, the written record of 

 observations, the diary, and the chart. It 

 is here that the teacher's intelligence and 

 judgment must hold the scales, and while 

 fostering the love of scientific inquiry, check 



