stlvester] NA TU RE-STUDY IN CITY DISTRICTS 2 05 



why he needs nature-study training. Let us commence our work 

 with his environment and gradually seek to enlarge his horizon, 

 keeping in view the principle of correlation. 



The value of our work should never be measured by the amount 

 of knowledge acquired, or by the ability of the child to express 

 what he has learned either orally or in writing — but rather by the 

 sympathy and interest awakened. Every subject has teaching 

 power when properly presented. The nearer this subject is to 

 the child, the greater will be his interest, the greater will be the 

 power of the subject — other conditions being equal — and as a 

 result, the child is placed more closely in touch with his surround- 

 ings, and becomes more contented therein. He also becomes 

 more efficient. Understanding conditions to a certain extent, he 

 is better able to rise above them. Moreover, these so-called 

 "common things" are just as efficient means of developing the 

 imagination and training the higher faculties as are any of the 

 other subjects of the course. The "common things" will furnish 

 abundant sense — material which may be elaborated into more 

 complex psychic products and serve as the basis for deeper and 

 broader work. 



In our congested districts, the parents of the pupils are engaged 

 in certain industrial pursuits. These could be used to furnish 

 the basis of lessons to the pupils, who might be taught to see in 

 them much more than merely a means of securing a livelihood. 

 The subjects selected for our work must be governed to a great 

 degree by conditions, rather than by ideals. Further, we must 

 not only begin with common objects and events, but we must 

 endeavor to begin with the child's own natural point of contact 

 with these objects or events. 



The nature experiences of younger children, those of kinder- 

 garten age for example, and even for those in first two or three 

 years in school are varied and numerous, but are all closely 

 related to their immediate surroundings. Therefore, the teacher 

 must prepare herself thoroughly from the perspective of the child. 

 She will very likely find that her pupils know much more than she 

 gave them credit for. These earlier experiences are unrelated 

 and unorganized perhaps, and such relations as do exist are 

 merely relations of things really observed or experienced, and 

 have little or no reference to any sort of scientific scheme, but 

 they are valuable, nevertheless. 



