124 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



to consider the environment of the child, so that 

 the school may not be to him "a thing remote 

 and foreign." The value of nature-study is 

 recognized not only in thus making possible an 

 intelligent study of the country child's environ- 

 ment, but in teaching a love of nature, in giving 

 habits of correct observation, and in preparing 

 for the more fruitful study of science in later 

 years. Our best farmers are also coming to see 

 that nature-study in the rural schools is a neces- 

 sity, because it will tend to give a knowledge of 

 the laws that govern agriculture, because it will 

 teach the children to love the country, because 

 it will show the possibilities of living an intel- 

 lectual life upon the farm. Nature-study, 

 therefore, will have a very direct influence in 

 bringing the child into close touch with the 

 whole life of the farm community. 



But it is not so much a matter of introducing 

 new studies — the old studies can be taught in 

 such a way as to make them seem vital and 

 human. Take, for instance, geography. It 

 used to be approached from the standpoint of 

 the solar system. It now begins with the 

 schoolhouse and the pupils' homes, and works 

 outward from the things that the child sees and 

 knows to the things that it must imagine. His- 



