14 The Nature-Study Idea 



do not want to make preparation for their les- 

 sons. The lazy teacher can find plenty of 

 excuses. One who fairly reads the book need 

 not be misled. My general plea is a challenge 

 to existing hard-and-fast methods and to those 

 ways of teaching that take the pupil prematurely 

 beyond his depth. There is no danger tha 

 the school work will lack in formality: our sys- 

 tems encourage formality, and the desire to 

 standardize all methods seems to be extending, 

 but a free and natural procedure needs always 

 to be promoted and defended. In actual school 

 practice, it is of course necessary that a system 

 be followed and that the teacher have ability 

 enough and knowledge enough to be able to 

 teach. I have not cared to prepare an outline 

 for class work: the book is concerned with the 

 nature-study idea. Nor have I desired to make 

 supplemental statements in these intervening 

 years, for I have wanted the idea to sink in. 



The recent years have been a time of wide- 

 spread discussion of all phases of education for 

 the people, and the nature-study idea has re- 

 ceived its full share of attention. Whatever 



