AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND 

 NATURE STUDY 



In teaching facts to the young^, the great thing to aim at is not dis- 

 cipline, but interest ; learning should be a joy, children should be assisted 

 forward by attraction in front. . . . First arouse interest, then supply in- 

 formation. ... Is the teaching in rural schools all that could be desired in 

 view of the future life and surroundings of the scholars ? . . . I have often 

 felt as if they would be better out observing nature, with educated assist- 

 ance, in the fields, and laying a foundation for knowledge such as may 

 hereafter provide them with some hobby of perpetual and lifelong interest ; 

 instead of being cooped up in stuff}' rooms "with blinded eyesight, poring 

 over miserable books." Books, too, are necessary, of course, and poetry 

 and much human information as well ; but should not the forces and the 

 intricacies and the secrets of nature also be opened up? , . . Yet these 

 children, uneducated and unenlightened, will have far too much of it, will 

 feel deadly dull, and will flock into the towns hereafter for comradeship and 

 interests which they cannot create for themselves. (Sir Oliver Lodge.) 



There is no doubt of the necessity for work of this kind (nature study) 

 with the children. The love or antipathy of the farm is engendered at a very 

 early age in the minds of the young. (Prof. Bailey, "Cornell University," 



U.S. A.) 



The efficiency of tuition will, other things equal, be proportionate to the 

 gratification with which tasks are performed. ... It is desirable that the 

 instinctive inclination which every child shows to observe natural beauties 

 and investigate natural phenomena should be encouraged. (Herbert Spencer, 

 "Education.") 



From observation and memory there is only one step to reflection . . . 

 every object that surrounds the child might be made instrumental to the 

 excitement of thought. . . . We must bear in mind that the ultimate end of 

 education is not a perfection in the accomplishments of the school, but fitness 

 for life. . . . There are scarcely any circumstances in which a want of 

 application does not proceed from a want of interest. Indescribable tedium 

 must oppress the juvenile mind while the weary hours are slowly passing 

 away, one by one, in an occupation which they can neither relish nor under- 

 stand its use. ... It is well to make a child read and write and learn and 

 lepeat — but it is still better to make a child think. Education, instead of 

 merely considering what is to be imparted to children, ought to consider first 

 what they may be said already to possess, if not as a developed, at least as 

 an involved faculty capable of development. (Pestalozzi, " Letters on 

 Education," 1827.) 



I found that in America it is the " practical " subjects which are princi- 

 pally taught. . . . With the ordinary " everyday " boy who has to fight his 

 way in the world, the bulk of the time is devoted to practical subjects likely 

 to be of most use to him in after life. (Alfred Mosely, " Reports of the 

 Mosely Commission.") 



