FIELD WORK IN BOTANY IN GRAMMAR AND HIGH 



SCHOOLS' 



BY CHARLES E. BBSSET 

 Professor of Botany in the University of Nebraska 

 [Editorial Note. — It has been pointed out several times in The Review 

 (especially in Vol. i, No. 2, p. 77) that nature-study may have a place in high 

 schools, and even in colleges, when the elementary-school work has not been 

 sufficient to give general familiarity with the very common things in nature; and 

 so much of the field work in botany and zoology which has come into vogue in 

 recent years is really nature-study rather than organized science study. The fol- 

 lowing paper will be especially helpful to high-school teachers who must ( [) give 

 their own pupils the essentials of plant nature-study and (2) direct the elementary 

 school nature-study so that the coming botany classes in high school will bring 

 from their nature-study the best kind of a foundation. And this without in the 

 least aiming to make the elementary-school work directly preparatory to the high 

 school, for that nature-study which is best for liberal elementary education con- 

 sidered as an end in itself will be perfectly satisfactory as a preparation for high- 

 school sciences.] 



Within the last few years there has been a .strong tendency among 

 teachers of botany to recommend a very considerable increase in the 

 amount of field work to be undertaken by the pupils in this subject. 

 This is a natural reaction from the unusual emphasis which had been 

 placed upon laboratory work, especially that form of laboratory work 

 which included the use of the compound microscope. Today there 

 are those who would banish the compound microscope from the grade 

 schools and some even who would greatly restrict its use in the high 

 school. Some of these reactionists would go back to something very 

 like the old-time teaching in which the pupil prepared to ''analyze 

 and classify" the flowering plants by first studying some special 

 text-book for a few weeks, and then spending as much time as possi- 

 ble in collecting plants for the practical work of so-called "analysis 

 and classification." It must be said for this old-time method that 

 whatever were its deficiencies, it did make pupils acquainted with 

 some of the wild plants of the region. It is true that the more diffi- 

 cult species were judiciously ignored, the pupil giving them no atten- 

 tion since they were said to be "too difficult for the beginner." On 

 this point I can speak with authority, since I was taught my first 



4<ead before the Science Section of the Nebraska State Teachers' Associa- 

 tion, December 27, 1906. 



