FAIRBANKS] GEOGRAPHY AND NATURE-STUDY l8l 



man " heimatskunde," or " home-lore " as it has been translated. 



The criticism that geography is a mere jumble of facts from 

 different sciences and that to modernize the subject these should 

 be segregated in primers, each dealing with a particular science, 

 is wrong in theory and has been shown to be so in actual prac- 

 tice. Geography, as we have seen, has a definite content and a 

 particular purpose to fulfil. If we separate its component parts 

 we are destroying the subject and the higher outlook upon the 

 phenomena of the earth which their synthesis affords us. 



Marked differences in practice exist in different cities of the 

 United States as to the time of beginning geography, although 

 nature-study wherever taught is usually found in the first grade. In 

 Chicago the two subjects are combined for the first three years. 

 In Boston and New York nature-study begins in the first grade 

 and geography in the fourth, while in the former city the study 

 of natural phenomena from the fourth grade upward is termed 

 *' elementary science." In the Horace Mann School of Teachers 

 College, New York, work under geography is begun in the 

 third grade. The University Elementary School of Chicago 

 closely correlates both geography and nature-study throughout 

 the course. It is probable however that the differences in prac- 

 tice are not as great as they appear upon paper, for much that 

 is really geography is often included under nature-study. 



Beginning with the fifth year, geography has to do mainly with 

 facts beyond the experience of the pupil, while nature-study is 

 still largely confined to the home district. It is apparent that as 

 a usual thing little attempt is made in arranging courses of study 

 to correlate nature-study and geography. After the two have 

 separated at the beginning of the grammar-school period it is 

 evidently not possible to make a complete correlation because the 

 fields covered are not the same, and yet, these studies are nearly 

 related and should be made to harmonize and mutually support 

 each other as far as possible. Such an arrangement would aid in 

 giving a plan to the nature-study work, for the lack of system has 

 been a partial cause of the frequent failures. 



Such topics from the home district as the relation of the cli- 

 matic conditions to the features of the land, to bodies of water, 

 to the direction of the wind, etc. ; the relation of plants and ani- 

 mals to their environment; the dependence of man upon the vari- 

 ous physical conditions about him; are phases of nature-study 



