256 HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



signs of the times, are fitting themselves along this 

 line. Some are attending summer schools with this 

 in view. This line of work is now taken up in most, 

 if not all, normal training schools, and it must hence- 

 forth be considered a necessary part of the training 

 of a well-equipped teacher to know the rudiments of 

 the natural sciences, with a view to being able to 

 teach, or lead, in this inspirational way. 



It is no excuse for not teaching the children any- 

 thing about the natural world that the curriculum is 

 already overcrowded. If that is true, so much the 

 worse for the curriculum. It is clearly wrong if the 

 young must learn only books and little or nothing of 

 their surroundings in the world. This must be set 

 right, even if the whole theory and plan of education 

 has to be changed, from kindergarten to university. 

 Indeed there is a growing conviction among educators 

 that more about nature must be taught in the gram- 

 mar grades and certain other things be postponed or 

 omitted. 



The time to begin is not in the high school, but 

 with young children, before their tastes and habits 

 are formed. Some teachers even begin in the first 

 grade. And why not, since by nature every little 

 child is passionately fond of the animals and birds? 



This is also suggestive as to where to begin; of 

 course, with the common local wild birds and ani- 

 mals, especially the birds, because the wild mammalia 

 are mostly scarce or nocturnal, whereas the birds are 

 the forms most easily observed. In my own school 



