Inquiries and Answers 197 



guage that enables us to talk about the object. 

 Tell the name at the outset and have the mat- 

 ter done with (pp. 79, 121). Then go on to 

 questions. 



Would you begin by first reading to the child 

 about nature? 



No, not in the school as a part of nature- 

 study work. The reading should come after, 

 not before (pp. 30, 37). Order will gradually 

 come out of experience. The child should first 

 come in contact with things rather than with 

 ideas about things. This is the natural order. 

 Animals come before zoology, plants before 

 botany, fields and rocks before geology, words 

 before language, religion before theology. Ex- 

 perience should come before theory. 



There will be times, of course, in the exig- 

 encies of school work, when the teacher may 

 feel obliged to read to the children in advance 

 of taking up the particular study; but these 

 occasions will be exceptions, and not a part of 

 the system. In many cases, a vacant period or 

 a rainy day may be made useful by good nature 

 reading. 



