What is Nature-Study? 15 



may be the opinion of individual teachers and 

 writers on the nature-study movement, it is a 

 fact that our educational methods are re-shaping 

 themselves in such a way as to allow the pupil 

 to develop a sympathetic and vital contact with 

 his usual environment; and the stiff, dead and 

 gainfully exact teaching of rule and fact to the 

 young is rapidly giving way to a free, spirited 

 and natural way of teaching. We can even 

 now begin to see the result in a less restrained 

 and more wholesome outlook on life in the 

 young generation. It will be much satisfaction 

 to me if I can feel at the end that this frag- 

 mentary book has had some effect in heartening 

 teachers not to be afraid to teach. 



