2 04 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE W [ S :8— nov.. 1909 



canary, sparrow and parrot. Still, it is just as needful that such 

 a child should be trained to understand the things of real life in 

 nature, especially those which are more or less closely related to 

 his welfare. It is reasonable, however, to say, that in congested 

 districts there can be less observational work as far as range is 

 concerned than in less crowded districts or in the suburbs, but it 

 does not necessarily follow that the kind of observation should 

 differ. The child in the congested district has an immense 

 appercepti /e mass, such as it is. A writer in one of the recent 

 educational magazines calls attention to this very point. "The 

 sky scraper, the elevated road thundering overhead, the subway 

 roaring beneath him, the great bridges, the thronged thorough- 

 fares, all these tend to make him alert— but how little does he 

 know of hills and vales, of green fields and running brooks of the 

 haunts of wild flowers, of the habits of birds?" 



At present, there seems to be sweeping over us another wave of 

 utilitarianism as regards education. Much is being said and done 

 nowadays toward making school work more practical. Before 

 long, we shall find every subject of the course subjected to severe 

 tests and criticisms and viewed from this point, it is a difficult 

 matter to determine just what is practical. The experts will 

 probably never agree. Like everything else, the only safe path 

 will be the middle path — avoiding the too theoretical on the one 

 hand, and the too utilitarian on the other. 



There is no subject in the course which presents greater possi- 

 bilities here than does nature-study. On the theoretical side, it 

 has endeavored to train observation, and appeal to the aesthetic 

 sense; it has the two-fold educational value as information and 

 as culture. On the other hand, it has attempted to be practical 

 in the broadest sense. But the content must vary, of necessity, 

 with the surroundings of the school and the needs *of its pupils. 



In country districts and in the suburbs, we may demand access 

 to the fields and woods; in less favored districts we may have 

 school-gardens and window boxes ; in the congested districts, we 

 are forced perhaps, to be content with a few potted plants which 

 must be coaxed to live at all, and perhaps we must use collections 

 of various sorts. But we can do our best with these, for it is only 

 in this way that the city child can secure first-hand contact with 

 nature and lay the foundation for broader work — because the 

 very fact that the pupil lives so narrow a life is the very best reason 



