What is Nature-Study? 9 



rational and vivid conception of the material as 

 it relates to him. I have been interested all my 

 life in plants ; but I should not care to have one 

 of my pupils devote four or five periods a week 

 for a whole freshman year to the study of 

 botany unless he were specially interested in 

 botany. Much of the beginning teaching in the 

 sciences in colleges and universities is undoubt- 

 edly very bad. It is no doubt accurate, and it 

 may also be adapted to the few students who 

 desire to specialize in the subject; but such 

 students should be taken further in courses 

 designed for them. Condensed general courses 

 that give the college student a rational view of 

 the subject, without many details and exceptions, 

 are very much to be desired; and such courses 

 should attempt to relate the student to his own 

 experience in life. 



We have been passing through a long epoch 

 of speech-education. This no doubt is largely 

 the outcome of the results of the Reformation, 

 to teach persons to read their own scripture. 

 The schools must undergo a continual process 

 of growth and adaptation if they are to meet the 



