34 THE NA TURESTUD Y RE VIE W [ 5 ' 2— feb., 1909 



conception of the function is sufficiently definite to give pedagogi- 

 cal value to the work and is at the same time sufficiently com- 

 prehensive to include the definitions of the leaders of the nature - 

 study movement. 



During this peiiod Professor C. F. Hodge came to Indiana and 

 developed the subject in many counties at teachers institutes and 

 also, under the auspices of the Summer Biological Station of 

 Indiana University at Winona Lake, gave extended series of 

 lectures to the large number of students and teachers there 

 assembled. The enthusiasm and personal magnetism of Profes- 

 sor Hodge are so well known, as are also his views upon the 

 content, presentation, and significance of nature-study, that no 

 extended comment is necessary either as to the character or 

 extent of his influence upon the movement in this State. 



Later under the forward movement in agricultural education, 

 the nature-study movement especially in the rural schools and to 

 a very considerable extent in urban communities as well, was 

 given a very definite direction and took on a new vigor because 

 of the close relationship existing between the work and the daily 

 life of the child. 



Much other notable work in nature-study was done in the 

 State in these earlier years, but the above represents the organized 

 and continuous efforts to give direction and value to the move- 

 ment. These may be taken as the main factors influencing the 

 content and form of nature-study work in Indiana, and in almost 

 every school in the State the dominance of some one or the other 

 of these influences may be recognized. 



The first peril through which the movement passed, if it has 

 even yet escaped the danger, was that of formal courses of study 

 embracing in the work of each year almost every known group of 

 objects and phenomena. Courses which were invariably too 

 extensive and in far too many instances extremely illogical and 

 poorly adapted to the needs or capacity of the pupils. Almost 

 every city gave in its manual extensive outlines of work in 

 nature-study, outlines manifestly impossible to be carried out 

 either by the teacher or the pupils. The almost immediate result 

 of this phase in the development of the subject, was loss of vital- 

 ity, a consequent loss of interest and in some instances the com- 

 plete disappearance of nature-study from the schedules. So 

 serious were the results that a leaflet was issued calling attention 



