178 The Nature-Study Idea 



changes that water and air undergo in relation 

 to daily life"), taught in the nature-study spirit. 



What is the proper pedagogical starting-point 

 for nature-study? 



[Reply to an inquiry from an officer in a 

 normal college, who is urged to develop the 

 nature-study in accordance with a pedagogical 

 hypothesis. He is advised as follows, and he 

 asks an opinion: 



"The first advice is from the standpoint of 

 the biologist, that the child repeats the history 

 of the race and therefore should go to that 

 place in history for material which will corre- 

 spond with the stage through which the child 

 is passing. The nature-study work would be 

 based upon this idea and the history and litera- 

 ture chosen as nearly as possible from the stages 

 through which the child may be passing at a 

 given time. 



"The other point of view makes the child's 

 present environment the standpoint for getting 

 everything, and the child with this as a basis 

 looks back upon and studies the life through 



