Inquiries and Answers 185 



Would you teach heat, light and physics as 

 nature-study topics? 



Not as these subjects are ordinarily taught. 

 They are usually taught as abstractions, having 

 little relation to the pupil's life. There are 

 many phenomena in these fields that are within 

 the range of the pupil's experience, and these 

 may be useful in the hands of a good teacher. 

 The best results will be secured, by most 

 teachers, by confining nature-study rather closely 

 to biological fields and to those earth- and sky- 

 subjects that are most intimately associated, in 

 the child's mind, with the outside world. Many 

 of the phenomena in this outside world are 

 physical, and I would not exclude them; but I 

 once knew a teacher who began nature-study 

 for children with a disquisition on the conserva- 

 tion of energy! 



Would you teach "practical" and "useful" 

 things? (See pp. 32, 97, 113.) 



Yes, if the things are such as appeal to the 

 child and are adapted to the conditions. No, 

 if they do not meet these requirements. In 



