28 LAND REFORM 



Much evidence is to be found also in the Report, 

 showing the remarkable effect which an improved 

 method of teaching has on the children in schools 

 where such teaching is given. 



Mr. L. J. Roberts (p. 52) says : — 



" The process of making acquaintance with external 

 nature is bein^ made deliorhtful and stimulating- to the 

 children, and while their capacity for exact observa- 

 tion is being developed, they are being taught to take 

 a pleasurable interest in every living thing around 

 them. That interest in the green earth and its 

 feathered and four-footed tenantry, which is seem- 

 ingly instinctive in most children, is being fostered 

 into a lifelong resource. It is pleasing to notice how 

 many school plants are now grown for observation, 

 and how the growth of the plant is observed and 

 recorded from day to day, so that the children gain 

 something of the pleasure of original investigation, 

 simple though it be as yet. . . . Many teachers 

 possess a special knowledge of school gardening and 

 a real interest in the subject, and one cannot too 

 greatly admire the readiness with which many of 

 them, often out of school hours, take their scholars 

 to the school -house garden, there to tell them 

 what he has learned and observed in his leisure 

 hours." 



If we turn from the evidence of inspectors to that 

 of teachers, we find that with many of them the same 

 view of the subject prevails. ^The following extracts 



^ For a full report see " Nature Study," by VV. M. Webb. (Co-opera- 

 tive Printing Society, London. Price 6d.) See also a valuable work, 

 beautifully illustrated, on the same subject, "Eton Nature Study and 

 Observational Lessons." (Matthew Davenport Hill and Wilfred Mark 

 Webb. 1903. Duckworth & Co.) 



