CHAPTER IV 



CORRELATING NATURE STUDY 



" Oh, yes, we know all about correlation ; we 

 have had full instructions, read topical outlines 

 and schedules in our teachers' journals ; had it 

 reiterated to us at the Institutes ; seen it advo- 

 cated in the schedules of nature study for each 

 month, and, therefore we know all about it. Of 

 course we correlate nature study. We correlate 

 it with drawing, language lessons, writing, and 

 even with arithmetic and geography, so we are all 

 right on that, and we need no further instruction.'* 



If you really have correlated nature study in 

 all those ways, and insisted upon it in all cases, 

 you have done exactly what you should not have 

 done. You have shaken water and oil together 

 and made a compound, good neither for lubri- 

 cation nor for quenching thirst. Or, to use an- 

 other simile, you have flavored a dose of castor 

 oil with wintergreen, and made a mess. You 

 may have helped the oil, but you have made it 

 mighty bad for the wintergreen ! 



Have you really been using nature study, 

 4 49 



