A COURSE IN NATURE-STUDY FOR TEACHERS 



By RUTH MARSHALL 



Rockford College, Rockford, 111., formerly Instructor in Nature-Study, 



The University of Nebraska 



It has been recently stated that the leaders of the nature-study 

 movement are in practical agreement as to matter and methods. 

 If this is so, it is a great step forward. But to those of us who 

 see how the subject is usually taught — or not taught — how the 

 subject actually lies in the minds of those who are not the leaders 

 but the teachers and the students, the present status of nature- 

 study as a school subject is far from what it should be. The 

 foundations for successful study and teaching are hardly laid. 



Nature-study has come to stay. Popular interest in the out- 

 of-doors and the extention of scientific work has forced it into the 

 schools poorly prepared to teach it. When the curriculum has 

 adjusted itself somewhat to the man}- new demands upon it, 

 conditions for nature-work will be more favorable; but still the 

 great drawback is the lack of preparation of the teachers. Let us 

 face the situation fairly, remembering that neither teachers nor 

 schools are to be blamed for the failures. We are confronted by 

 a situation which is one aspect of changing conditions and shift- 

 ing points of view. 



Nature-study has suffered from too narrow an interpretation 

 of the term. If this were conceded, some of the difficulties 

 about subject-matter and methods would disappear. The dis- 

 cussion as to whether it is the foundation of science, or supple- 

 mentary to it, or all inclusive of it, is a secondary matter. Let 

 us remember, too, the significance of the term nature-study and 

 that it is not limited by the course of study of the elementary 

 schools. 



After all, what is it that we are trying to get as students and 

 teachers, for ourselves, and that which we want the children to 

 have? Forget, if we can, the pedagogics, or keep it well in the 

 background, and lay aside the trite sayings that nature-study 

 trains the process of observation, fosters a love of nature, trains 

 the logical powers, and many of the other things that cumber the 

 subject, the so-called principles which so many school people 

 seem to think essential to place conspicuously at the head of the 



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