2 1 8 THE NA TURE- S TUD V RE VIE W [3:8- 



1907 



reach that end. The end is two-fold ; (i) to give the child a clear 

 straight forward, utterly clean conception of the origin of living- 

 things, (2) to make him respect and control his own powers. 



In the Primary School the teacher has a very limited field, being 

 able to do no more perhaps than to give in a general way, through 

 nature-study, some idea of the beauty of the mystery of life and 

 the fundamental necessity of the procreative power — to cause the 

 child to respect the subject in short. The best possible field for 

 this impersonal beginning work is perhaps the botany lessons. 

 Since the modern method of teaching botany begins with function^ 

 instead of structure the plant affords almost as good material as 

 the animal in this field — in some respects better, through its very 

 impersonality and beautiful material giving a certain poetic force 

 to the subject less easily obtainable in animal forms. 



The first step should be to make the child love the plant, and 

 this is easily done by arousing in him a vivid sense that it too is 

 alive. It breathes, it feeds, it is beautiful, it has ways of accom- 

 plishing its ends. It has honey for the bees and butterflies, it 

 wears bright colors for the sake of being beautiful, and to entice 

 them. It reproduces itself in its seeds. The mystery of its 

 reproduction through the seed should be dwelt upon but in na 

 wise separated from its other functions. The renewal of life 

 should never be set apart as a thing by itself, as something pecu- 

 liar, different from the other phenomena of life. It should rank 

 in the child's mind as one of the fundamental, necessary, admira- 

 ble facts of physical existence, to this end much or little detail 

 being given according to the age and condition of the pupils. 



Beyond the merest beginnings the teacher of the lower grades 

 can not go with safety, excepting to keep an eye on her flock and 

 by her attitude wherever the subject may happen in any form to 

 arise, to establish a standard of thought and of speech; and by 

 personal, private help, caution, advice, instruction to needy 

 individuals, and wherever possible by assisting the parent to 

 understand and cooperate. 



To do-even this much the teacher herself needs to be thoroughly 

 educated in her subject. She must know where the road leads to 

 and something of its details before she can hope to lead others 

 successfully over it — or over even the beginning of it. Sound 

 teaching of the teachers is a very important first step in this mat- 

 ter. 



