FAIRBANKS] GEOGRAPHY AND NATURE-STUDY 1 79 



been crammed with facts about every conceivable phenomena of 

 nature, whether of any worth and interest to him or not. This 

 we may truly call dabbling in science. It is poor science and 

 does not deserve the name of nature-study. 



The lack of mental development and training on the part of 

 the pupil precludes the methods of science in the elementary 

 school. The study of natural phenomena for the purpose of 

 classification and the formulation of law will come in its proper 

 time, but it is sufficient for the pupil of the grammar grade to 

 interest himself in and become familiar with the facts of nature 

 about him without attempting a formal organization of his 

 knowledge. 



Nature cannot be studied from exactly the same standpoint in 

 the grammar grades as it is in the primary, while in the high 

 school and college, methods must be still different. Our school 

 periods are purely artificial divisions, and we cannot say that 

 nature-study pure and simple stops with the eighth grade and 

 science begins with the first year in the high school. The grade 

 should determine the manner in which the problems of nature 

 are taken up. The methods of nature-study of the upper gram- 

 mar grades must logically blend into the science work of the 

 high school with no break between them. It follows then that 

 much of the work in the high school cannot be as formal and 

 scientific as the work in the college or university. 



What the pupils need in the elementary school is to see the 

 concrete side of natural phenomena. A physical principle should 

 not be worked out for its own sake as in the advanced schools, 

 but as an illustration of some fact or experience in the pupil's 

 own life. In short physics as physics has no place in the gram- 

 mar school, botany as a formal analytic study is out of place, 

 and so with similar phases of other sciences. It would also be 

 much better if the history work in the grades was less formal and 

 closely interwoven with the geography throughout the course. 

 Any method which tends to relate facts as they are related in 

 actual life adds to the vitality of the work of the elementary 

 school. 



The plan of the work of the grammar grade should be such as 

 to enable the pupils to get the most out of nature from both the 

 aesthetic and practical standpoints on the supposition that their 

 schooling ends with that period. 



