Marshall] COURSE I N NATURE-STU DY FOR TEACHERS ^5 



course of study, as a kind of thesis to be defended. The thing 

 that we want to get is a knowledge of nature ; in schools we want 

 the children to know nature. That is all, and that is enough. 

 But they must really know nature, and we must really know 

 that we know it when we attempt to teach it. Really know 

 nature at first hand and all these other things shall be added, — 

 alertness of observation, love of nature, the power and the logic. 

 This is what the scientist wants, the agriculturist, the ordinary 

 man and woman of every calling, and it is what the children need. 

 It is not an easy thing to get. — the knowledge of nature. Like 

 other knowledge it comes mostly through work and study. If 

 we are interested we forget that the study is hard. So it is with 

 nature-study. It is doubtful if interest in nature and love for it. 

 as we commonly use the terms, are inborn in every child, to be 

 stifled later by some cruel pedagogue. Both in the individual 

 and in the race, the intellectual and aesthetic appreciation of 

 nature have come late. Literary and scientific writings on 

 nature are very modern, most of them. What we often take for 

 love of nature is usually only a transient and superficial curiosity. 

 From the beginning, man has of necessity been in close contact 

 with nature, for he is a part of nature. His rise from savagery 

 has been the result of his conquest over it. But this has been 

 when superficial curiosity has deepened into intelligent interest 

 that has lead to conquest and true knowledge. The aesthetic- 

 appreciation comes later. Here and there are those born to it, 

 as there are a few rare souls born to an appreciation of art and 

 music: with most of us it is largely a matter of education. 

 Interest in human nature is greater than interest in nature, and 

 naturally and rightly so. This new movement for the study of 

 nature in the midst of which we are today is not another "return 

 to nature" movement, although it is in some measure the result of 

 the strain of urban life, but a new interest, an interest deeper and 

 more general than ever before. The knowledge of nature that 

 we have in mind is the possession chiefly of the age in which we 

 now live; a large part of it has come very recently to the race. 

 This new knowledge, this new renaissance, has most profoundly 

 changed our entire outlook upon life. The movement for the 

 teaching of nature-study in schools is part of an attempt to 

 adjust the school curriculum to the changed point of view, the 

 putting of emphasis on new things. We cannot too much 



