so THE NA TURE-STUD V RE VIE W ^3 : 2-feb., 1907 



DISCUSSION 

 DR. GROUT'S "METHODS OF TEACHING NATURE-STUDY" ' 



I 



Several readers have noted in Dr. Grout's paper these sentences: "The 

 difference between nature-study and elementary biology is not clear to most 

 people. Personally the author believes thev should not be diiFerentiated but 

 should become synonymous." What justification could be offered for such 

 duplication in our school system ? — is the question which readers have asked. 

 We have referred the question to Dr. Grout and this is his answer: 



My statement does not mean that identical work should be done in the 

 grades and in high school. The biology I studied in post-graduate work 

 was not the same in content as that I studied in college. Science is classified 

 knowledge. Nature-study, so called, often fails to become science because 

 it is too hit or miss and gives information in a pleasing but hap-hazard way. 

 I believe that grade work should be planned so as to be truly scientific, but 

 that it need not be one whit less interesting for that reason. 



On the other hand T believe that elementary biology in the secondary 

 school is often so much like college work that it looses its attractive features. 

 It should be modified so as to become as pleasing as the nature-study now 

 taught by our best teachers. It should come as naturally after the grade 

 work as algebra after arithmetic. The only difficulty at present is the absolute 

 scarcity of properly trained teachers, and as long as a jockey gets from five to 

 fifty thousand dollars a year to "ride a man's horses and a tutor for his boy 

 gets only one thousand, and other like things in proportion, so long we shall 

 have this difficulty to contend with. 



Boy's High School, Brooklyn, N. Y. A. J. Grout. 



II 



In the excellent paper on ** Methods of Teaching Nature-Study," by Dr. 

 Grout, I find two points which demand comment. The statement is made 

 that **marvelous and striking facts are legitimate and highly useful material"; 

 one reason that the actions of the sensitive plant arouse so much attention is 

 that motion is an unsuspected power of plants and also quite unusual"; **un- 



^ See this journal for October, 1906. 



