SOME PRINCIPLES THAT DETERMINE THE SCOPE OF 

 NATURE-STUDY 



By EDWIN A. TURNER \ 



Superintendent of Schools, Connersville, Ind. 



We have heard much of nature-study in the last few years. 

 Those who have advocated its educational importance most 

 strongly have not always had the clearest conception of the 

 growth that it should stimulate or a conclusive knowledge of the 

 material that it should include. Intense enthusiasm has often 

 been more prominent than reflection and the result is that there 

 is a general belief that nature-study as a subject exists, yet there 

 is no definite knowledge of its scope or even a tentative agreement 

 as to the material that shall be used. Perhaps every distinct 

 branch of study has had its inception in this vague way, but it 

 was not worthy the name of a subject until the basic principles 

 that are fundamental to its existence were determined and the 

 scope which they establish was defined. It follows just as log- 

 ically that if we are to make any claim for nature-study as a 

 science the principles that define the scope of the subject must 

 be determined before an intelligent selection of material can be 

 made, or before the subject can have the dignity of some of our 

 older and more closely organized subjects. The nature of the 

 subject implies that these principles must be determined by the 

 science of education rather than by the science of nature; that 

 they must emanate from psychic laws and social needs rather 

 than from natural laws. 



It is interesting to note that our present nature-study is the 

 outgrowth of two very diverse educational movements. The one 

 had its rise in Rousseau and Pestalozzi, the other has grown out 

 of the purely scientific spirit that, has dominated our social life in 

 the last half century. The former based its creed on nature and 

 thereby attempted to teach the child to love nature by observing 

 her varied and diverse forms. This movement gave an impetus 

 to our present formal and largely sentimental nature-study. The 

 latter has been responsible for much of our structural and life- 

 history work. The one entered the elementary school from the 

 kindergarten, the other came from the university down through 



