46 The Nature-Study Idea 



I would study a brook or a fence-corner or a 

 garden-bed or a bird or a domestic animal or 

 an insect or a plant. The life-histories of cer- 

 tain insects, and all common forms of life, afford 

 excellent nature-study exercise for pupils of 

 proper age. 



However, the teacher and the way of teach- 

 ing are more important than the subject-matter, 

 and there are good nature-study teachers who 

 are better fitted to teach inanimate than animate 

 subjects. There is no better nature-study exer- 

 cise than to observe the erosion by brooks, 

 floods, and rains, if the teacher is prepared to 

 handle it; and surely nothing can be more im- 

 portant than to put the child in sympathy 

 with the weather; and all persons should have 

 the habit of looking at the heavens in day and 

 night. 



It is due to every child that his mind be 

 opened to the voices of nature. The world is 

 always quick with sounds, although our ears are 

 closed to them. Every person hears the loud 

 songs of birds, the sweep of heavy winds and 

 the rush of rapid rivers or the sea ; but the small 



