1 8 THE NATURE-STUDY IDEA 



make museums, not naturalists. The scientist 

 needs these collections ; but it does not follow that 

 children always need them To be taught how to 

 kill is to alienate the pupil's affection and sympathy 

 from the object he is studying. It may be said 

 that it is necessary to kill insects ; the farmer had 

 this thought in mind when he said to one of our 

 teachers : " Give us more potato-bug and less 

 pussy willow." It is true that we must fight 

 insects, but that is a matter of later practice, not 

 of education. It should be an application of 

 knowledge, not a means of acquiring it. It may 

 be necessary to have war, but we do not teach our 

 children to shoot their playmates. 



Nature-study is not merely the adding of one 

 more thing to a curriculum. It is not coordinate 

 with geography or reading or arithmetic. Neither 

 is it a mere accessory, or a sentiment, or an 

 entertainment, or a tickler of the senses. It is 

 not " a study." It is not the addition of more 

 " work." It has to do with the whole point of 

 view of elementary education, and therefore is 

 fundamental. It is the full expression of person- 

 ality. - It is the practical working out of the 

 extension idea that has been so much a part of 

 our time. More than any other recent movement, 

 it will reach the masses and revive them. In time 

 it will transform our ideals and then transform our 

 methods. 



Nature-study stands for directness and naturalness. 

 It is astonishing, when one comes to think of it, 

 how indirect and how unrelated to the lives of 



