HODGE] NATURE-STUDY AND SCIENCE 7 



clay. In general, too, it is difficult to induce children to eat any- 

 thing that is distinctly distasteful to them, and under conditions 

 of normal health and appetite this is not necessary, their natural 

 tastes and desires being our safest guide. We do not think of 

 feeding non-nutritious substances for the sake of " strengthen- 

 ing " the stomach ; although the experiment has been tried of 

 giving a piece of sponge to a frog's stomach to see how the cells 

 would react. It was found that the cells secreted vigorously but 

 failed to recover their original condition as they did when sup- 

 plied with food. I have little doubt that a similar calamity in the 

 learning mechanism results from the effort to master subjects 

 that do not prove to contain some nutriment for thought and the 

 mental life. 



Science is a sort of military ration of a special few. Nature- 

 study should be the daily bread of all alike. The attempt to force 

 the army ration on the children of the country under the name 

 of " elementary science," or often mistakenly called nature-study, 

 has resulted in no end of misunderstanding and confusion. 



In attempting to answer the question, " What is nature-study 

 as distinguished from elementary science," it must be understood 

 that this discussion deals solely with the biological side: i. e., 

 What is nature-study of animals and plants as distinguished from 

 technical botany and zoology. Fortunately, there are others who 

 will speak for the other phases of the problem. Our particular 

 question thus becomes : What knowledge about animals and 

 plants ought to constitute the course in nature-study for ele- 

 mentary schools? 



It is easy to define botany and zoology as the scientific treat- 

 ment of animals and plants in regard to structure^, arrangement, 

 development and classification. All attempts to introduce these 

 sciences into elementary instruction had proved failures as long 

 ago as Charles Dickens wrote " Hard Times," and every effort 

 to force them into the curriculum since that time has only served 

 to heap up the evidence against them. Finally, to escape the 

 odium of the Thomas Gradgrind-Mr. McChoakumchild regime 

 the very name " elementary science " had to be dropped and the 

 wholesome term '' nature-study " substituted ; and the gravest 

 danger now confronting this new movement is that we forget the 

 lessons of the past and persist in trying to teach children formal 

 science adapted to maturer years. After acquaintance with a 



