Meaning of the Movement 33 



interested in living things that it would have no 

 desire to kill them. The gun and sling-shot 

 and steel-trap will be laid aside because the child 

 does not care for them any more. We have 

 been taught that one must make collections if 

 he is to be a naturalist; but collections alone 

 make museums, not naturalists. The scientist 

 needs these collections; but it does not follow 

 that children always need stuffed animals, birds' 

 eggs, and bottled specimens, although it is 

 important to encourage a regulated collecting 

 instinct. 



Nature-study is not merely the adding of one 

 more thing to a course of study. It is not 

 coordinate with geography or reading or arith- 

 metic. Neither is it a mere accessory, or a 

 sentiment, or an entertainment, or a means of 

 injecting vacant wonder into the pupils. It is 

 not "a study.'* It is not the addition of more 

 "work." A new "study" taught by the old 

 method would not represent progress. The 

 idea has to do with the whole point of view of 

 elementary education, and therefore is under- 

 lying. It is the full expression of personality. 

 3 



