122 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [7:5— May, 1911 



plete according to the liking of each. I shah refer particularly 

 to one or two features on which I have strong opinions. One of 

 these items is that of pictures. They are very important in all 

 subjects of study, and I feel that the pictures for all pupils 

 who have learned to read should be accompanied by sets of ques- 

 tions to be answered or things to be done, in order to make 

 the use of pictures more valuable than it has sometimes been in 

 the past. For nature-study, there will be pictures of plants, 

 flowers, trees, shrubs, fruits, vegetables, and crops, pictures of 

 parks and gardens, pictures illustrating the principles of home and 

 school-ground decoration, pictures illustrating the use of vacant 

 lots for gardening and the beautifying of the neighborhood with 

 plants. The pictures of animals are very important too, espe- 

 cially the pictures of birds. I hope that none of you are plan- 

 ning to supply the school museum with stuffed or mounted bird 

 skins. I wish here to protest against those nature-study leaders 

 who advocate any such thing. Let the public museums perform 

 their proper functions, and let the tens of thousands of schools re- 

 frain from contributing to the killing of birds to supply children 

 with their skins for study. If we do not use care, the birds will go 

 the way that many of the wild flowers have gone and are going, 

 which in the name of the love of nature we have trodden out or 

 plucked to the point of extermination, never realizing until re- 

 cently that we can do the greatest good to the greatest num- 

 ber, not merely by taking the few out to view nature, but by bring- 

 ing the wild plants into the towns and cities and growing them, 

 as is done in certain places in Europe, in the home, the garden, 

 and the park. Cannot this club influence the commissioners of all 

 the city parks to start and protect wild flower gardens? In the 

 case of the birds, let us renew our efforts to interest the children 

 in attracting them as far into the city as possible and in studying 

 the living birds rather than their stuffed skins. 



In general, for nature-study, the museum should contain as 

 much as possible of the essential material for carrying out the 

 course of study, and this would also be true for the other subjects 

 of the curriculum. Let each teacher recall the material he or she 

 has so devoutly wished were available for use in connection with 

 the teaching of the various topics in arithmetic, reading, litera- 

 ture, geography, nature-study, household arts, manual training, — 

 in fact, in the teaching of all of the subjects of the curriculum. 

 Those are the things we should gradually collect. The project is 

 practicable and the situation urgently demands it. 



The management of the museum is naturally one of the most 



