Who First Used the Term? 19 



schools. It was responsible for raising the prob- 

 lem of method among thoughtful teachers. But 

 the 'lessons on objects' were justly deserving the 

 criticism that they were disconnected, and that 

 the knowledge resulting from them was a knowl- 

 edge of isolated facts not organized into a com- 

 prehensive whole." 



Although the teaching of Agassiz may not 

 have been nature-study, as we understand the 

 term, it is undoubtedly true that the present 

 nature-study movement is a proximate result of 

 the forces that he and his contemporaries set in 

 motion. A strong application of this influence 

 to school life was made in Boston by Alpheus 

 Hyatt and Lucretia Crocker. In various places, 

 others of Agassiz's followers carried his spirit 

 into the schools. One of the most powerful 

 early adaptations of his teaching to the common- 

 school work was made at the State Normal 

 School at Oswego, N. Y. There was a strong 

 Pestalozzian influence in this institution, under 

 the leadership of the late Dr. Sheldon. Pro- 

 fessor H. H. Straight went to Oswego in 1876. 

 He had come under the influence of Agassiz and 



