186 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [5:7— oct., 1909 



emphasize this fact, that the increased knowledge of nature, 

 with all the changes which this has wrought, is the profoundly 

 significant fact of our day. 



It is time when we are taking stock; let us take stock of our- 

 selves, and see what equipment we have, what resources the 

 school may draw upon for the teaching of nature. The equip- 

 ment is very meagre, and we must realize it. This is primarily 

 what stands in the way of success. People who live in the 

 country surrounded by nature often have the most cramped and 

 limited knowledge of it; only that which immediately concerns 

 their occupations, that which necessity like a hard master has 

 driven them to acquire. They are not wise in the ways of nature 

 and they have not the culture and power which it gives. In 

 towns there may be a little more, or a little less of this nature 

 culture. The ordinary citizen does not know the names, even, 

 of the trees about him, nor the birds, and of course little of their 

 economic relations. The children go through the elementary 

 schools, and through the high school, may "take" botany and 

 zoology, and not know the blue jay nor the butter-cup that grows 

 like a weed about them. These are facts, not criticisms. What 

 can teachers, coming from the country and towns and educated 

 in these schools, do more or know more? That they are going to 

 know more and do more, and that they are making a praise- 

 worthy effort is shown by the difference in the amount of nature 

 lore and consequent interest in nature which school children have 

 now as compared with children twenty years ago. Both schools 

 and communities are shifting their points of view and catching 

 the new spirit. 



What is the condition of those more favored students and 

 teachers who have had opportunities to get the nature culture 

 in higher institutions? We are looking to them, and rightly, 

 for leadership and light. Most improvements in school matters 

 come down from above. Here again, let us take stock. The 

 great majority of students enter college with a very meager fund 

 of nature lore. The so-called courses in biological sciences in 

 high schools have been rather unsatisfactory, largely because 

 there has not been a foundation of nature-study of any sort. 

 In college, the students have more of the same kind of work, 

 better perhaps, more intensive, but still largely ineffective, be- 

 cause the foundation of nature lore is not there. The instructor 



