98 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i, 3, may 1905 



relative value of what they have been studying. This is poor 

 teaching. The teacher should not ramble anywhere in her work 

 as fancy or the whims of her pupils dictate, but she should study 

 her subject-matter and her pupils, so that essential truths may be 

 made to stand out in the recitation like mountain peaks against 

 the clear sky. This clear-cut teaching can be done in nature-study 

 as well as in other studies. While flexibility in a course of nature- 

 study is a thing desired, there is no reason why looseness in one's 

 method in the recitation should be tolerated. 



Nature-study as often taught has a tendency to make of the 

 pupils the most expert of liars. The writer visited a third-grade 

 recitation a few days ago. The teacher asked, " How many have 

 seen a fir tree ? " Up came nearly every hand in the class. The 

 writer doubts very much if a single member of the class ever saw 

 a fir tree. On a cold winter day a teacher asked, '' What kind of 

 an eye has a toad ? " Before the pupils got through the toad had 

 a very peculiar assortment of eyes. A teacher asked, " How 

 many have seen any young red-headed woodpeckers this Spring ? " 

 In a short time a boy who knew how to " work " his teacher had 

 a post actually alive with red-headed woodpeckers projecting their 

 heads out of knot-holes. His principal happened to enter and 

 suggested that the boy go with him after school to the post in 

 question. The boy's memory grew dim as to where the post was 

 located ; he finally said that he did not see it but that his sister did 

 and told him. In the end he had to admit that he made up the 

 story for the occasion. In the same recitation there were several 

 other similar stories, all produced because the teacher urged 

 something, because she accepted whatever was given her, and 

 because pupils had discovered that they could fool her. The 

 teacher must know what pupils should see and be a skilled ques- 

 tioner to head ofif this tendency to see things that do not exist and 

 to image things that cannot be. The habit of truthfulness needs 

 to become a part of the pupil's training or one of the great lessons 

 gained through nature-study will be lost. 



Quite a common pedagogical blunder is committed by the 

 nature-study teacher in forcing conclusions upon her pupils. It 

 often comes about in this way : The teacher has thought through 

 her subject-matter; she has made her observations and reached 

 her conclusions ; everything seems clear to her mind. Why should 

 it not be clear to her pupils? This she assumes to be the case 



