2IO Graphic Methods in Teaching. [18 



found them. No books were used in the school beyond 

 the three books of instruction prepared for the Club and 

 such books for the advanced pupils as might help out their 

 observations in nature. The books prepared for the Club 

 were simply designed to show how to study certain classes 

 of facts that might be observed in the study of the weather, 

 the soil and our more common plants. All the pupils were 

 required to report in detail the facts they observed and 

 many of the records of observations were made in the 

 form of graphic diagrams. This idea of making graphic 

 statements of observations proved to be of very great 

 value in many ways and was always a source of interest to 

 the pupils themselves. 



Two elements appear in every series of observations 

 time and the actual phenomena under observation. The 

 mere looking about in an aimless way, seeing a bird here, 

 a beetle there, a peculiar flower or a curious pebble in 

 another place is of very little value. To simply wander 

 through the fields and make notes of things to be seen, 

 while it may be very entertaining and healthful in a sani- 

 tary sense, is really of very little help to the child in the 

 way of training. He will see more than the child who 

 stays at home and the work of writing down his observa- 

 tions may be useful in teaching composition and may also 

 be helpful in cultivating the memory, yet the knowledge 

 gained is essentially fragmentary and the records of 

 observations will certainly have very little scientific value 

 either in themselves or as a course of training. The 

 excursion by the beach or in the woods, the field-day out 

 of doors should be encouraged, yet it must be noticed 

 that such walks abroad cannot compare in educational 

 value with a regular and systematic study of some one 

 thing in nature extended over a definite period of time. 

 The mere collecting of isolated facts, the mere recording 

 of haphazard observations can never be as helpful as the 

 observing of a regular order of events in nature. More- 



