THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED TO ALL PHASES OF NATURE-STUDY IN 

 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



Vol. I MAY, 1905 No. 3 



WHY MANY FAIL IN TEACHING NATURE -STUDY 



BY LUTHER A. HATCH 

 Principal of Training School, Northern Illinois State Normal School 



Many fail because they are not prepared for the work. There 

 are those who seem to think that anyone who can teach other 

 subjects in the grades can teach nature-study. It must be remem- 

 bered that occasionally a teacher is found who is born so short 

 along this line that it is a mistake to expect her to do anything at 

 the work. Nature has not blessed her with keen observation ; she 

 scarcely ever thinks of the many problems in nature about her. 

 Her interests lie along other lines. Her stock of information 

 and her disposition to inform herself are limited. She sees 

 nothing to teach her pupils. She does not possess the patience 

 to search out problems and to carry on, for an indefinite time, 

 observations which lead to the discovery of scientific truths. The 

 spirit of investigation is foreign to her thought. She cannot 

 acquire it or cause others to do so. How can one with this mental 

 endowment make a success in teaching nature-study. 



To succeed one must be filled with a love for nature and have 

 a desire to know more of her. One such will go out in the early 

 morning, at noonday and in the twilight and listen to her teach- 

 ings, and return to the schoolroom filled with new life, bearing 

 rich things for the pupils. In turn the pupils will catch the infec- 

 tion and will make their little journeys and glean rich harvests. 



Again, teachers fail to discriminate between the essential and 

 the non-essential in their teaching. Oftentimes the trivial, the 

 unimportant, receives as much attention in the recitation as that 

 of genuine importance. Pupils are left in the dark as to the 



