100 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [8 :3— Mar., 1912 



other. There is no attempt at connection between the two and the 

 so-called agriculture is seldom vitalized by illustration, demon- 

 stration or experiment. The eastern texts now in use are out of 

 place in California elementary schools. Fortunately for our 

 grammar grade boys and girls we have a new text on agricul- 

 ture for schools of the Pacific Slope, written by California men. 

 It is rich in suggestions for observation and experiment on the 

 part of the pupils. But even this will fail to secure ideal handling 

 of the subject unless teachers plan for garden work to furnish 

 outdoor experiment and application of the principles studied. 



Nature-Study can hardly be said to give such definite promise 

 as agriculture. We have been blessed with some very elaborate 

 plans for nature-study in large cities where, so far as I can learn, 

 very little nature-study is taught, as yet. We do not need more 

 scattered efiforts giving more detailed suggestions until we can 

 agree upon certain well proved units which may be united into a 

 progressive minimum course that is capable of being expanded 

 according to the desires and qualifications of individual teachers. 

 New York teachers are striving for this and it is what we should 

 seek. Then a teacher would know what was expected of her and 

 could economize her time in preparation, which would include 

 a study of the school's environment with reference to the subject 

 in hand, the selection of material and some thought about meth- 

 ods. One of the great needs of California schools to-day is 

 organized nature-study. Certainly, "our work and the world's 

 work have not been along parallel lines," but nature-study prop- 

 erly introduced can help overcome the deadening efifect of this 

 lack of connection of school with life for both teachers and 

 pupils. 



Enough has been said about "so-called" nature-study. We 

 could not put Nature in the garbage barrel even if we wanted to, 

 but we can easily get along without many of the supplementary 

 science and nature readers when we take time for real nature- 

 study. We should not strive to limit the proper use of the imag- 

 ination, but we should shun the wholesale personification of 

 natural objects. Notwithstanding the aesthetic and ethical values 

 of nature-study, we should not turn a deaf ear to the farmer, who 

 calls for "more about potato bugs and less of pussy willow." 

 Where nature-study has been taught the longest in this country, 

 the tendency now, even in the primary grades, is to select the 

 concrete, the practical, the thing that is of some use to the child. 

 Especially toward the close of the period of boyhood and girl- 

 hood and the dawning of early adolescence, we should have the 



