HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 45 



fact can be utilized, and is successfully utilized 

 in the school-room and in out-of-door work 

 in sense training. Notice the changes in foliage 

 color in a landscape ; recognize the changes that 

 take place in the prevailing hue of flowers as sea- 

 son follows season, from the white of the earliest 

 to the dark purple of the autumn Asters. Seeing 

 the actual changes awakens interest, and when 

 awakened, it will branch out in other directions. 

 Then your battle is won. 



A healthy child is an animated interrogation 

 point. When he learns that many of his ques- 

 tions can be answered by keeping his sense alert, 

 he will find his appetite in this direction wonder- 

 fully and joyously growing. He will need help 

 and guidance. But the desire and determination 

 to dig a thing out for himself, is of inestimable 

 value for increasing his happiness, and should 

 never be repressed. 



Nature study in its present pedagogical mean- 

 ing, is not systematic study of nature, for that is 

 science. Nature study is emotional, as science is 

 intellectual. Anna Botsford Comstock has well 

 expressed this opinion. 



" When the idea of nature study first dawned 

 in the educational world, it was inevitably con- 



