6 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



use a formula for biological description, such as this : 

 Kind of thing situation form, size, colour general struc- 

 ture minute structure function. The formula, like 

 formulae of other kinds, is useful to the beginner, but 

 must not be too rigorously imposed, nor continued too 

 long. Even before the days of regular instruction are 

 ended, the formula often needs to be mitigated, and at 

 length replaced by a more elastic method. 



Teachers now and then ask me how they are to teach 

 Nature Knowledge to a class of seventy, eighty, ninety or 

 even a hundred children. I am obliged to reply that in 

 my opinion the thing cannot be done at all. You may 

 keep order while you are instructing some few, but the 

 lesson to such a crowd is at best an unsatisfactory make- 

 shift. Not long ago I attempted to teach a class of sixty 

 teachers in training. Though the circumstances were 

 more favourable than one would find in school, we were 

 compelled before long to divide the class. With so large 

 a number, inattentive pupils escape notice, and attentive 

 ones are not called upon often enough for the teacher to 

 judge of their progress. These enormous classes are 

 advocated in the name of economy, but I fear it is economy 

 of the sort which pays half the price and gets a quarter 

 of the value. I know of no way whatever in which fifty 

 persons can be soundly instructed at the same time. 



What I have seen of the present generation of teachers 

 in training shows that they are much better instructed in 

 drawing than their predecessors ; I believe that nearly all 

 can draw as well as Nature Study requires. Further im- 

 provement is to be looked for in small points, such as 

 the more frequent use of washes of colour, and in the art 

 of drawing to scale, useful for so many purposes. Draw- 

 ings on the black board, copied by the class, are often 

 extremely mischievous in Nature Study. Coloration by 

 chalks is facile and seductive, but spoils the quality of 

 the outline. Shading of all kinds is best left out, as a 

 rule. Faults which I find prevalent are the frequent use 



