2 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



which he dispenses has no more power to excite the love 

 of nature or the spirit of inquiry than a printed list of 

 the kings of England with dates. These considerations 

 lead me to believe that it will be a greater service to start, 

 if I can, the habit of observation and inquiry in some 

 few teachers than to furnish a great many ready-made 

 lessons. 



I do not, however, think it superfluous or mischievous 

 to print from time to time examples of ready-made lessons. 

 The most independent of teachers can profit by seeing 

 how another man goes to work ; and he will, it is to be 

 hoped, be as solicitous to note faults which he is to avoid 

 as merits which he is to imitate. Of course, the facilities 

 thus afforded will be abused by some. There are persons 

 in all professions whom no pressure of circumstances 

 would induce to think for themselves. But a teacher of 

 any spirit will at least throw the information and the 

 hints which he gets from another into a form of his own, 

 and will carry on many inquiries which cannot be ex- 

 pected to issue in school-lessons. 



The belief is prevalent that the training of teachers in 

 Nature Study means supplying them with a number of 

 lessons which can be directly reproduced in the school- 

 room. Several objections to this time-saving method 

 force themselves upon the attention. The teachers are 

 put into a servile attitude ; they are made into vehicles 

 for transmitting (no doubt with much dilution and some 

 loss of accuracy) lessons which another person has drawn 

 up. The lessons as given to the teachers are not real 

 lessons, nor are the teachers really trained, for the laying 

 up in a note-book of materials for future lessons does not 

 deserve the name of training. A printed book would 

 answer the purpose in view better than any lecture ; the 

 book is both more extensive and more accurate than old 

 lecture-notes. I have understood my duties differently, 

 and address a class of teachers in training as persons 

 whose powers are to be cultivated. Such tasks are 



