54 HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 



thought of writing seems to benumb every impulse" 

 The author's italics are expressive. 



But if you must correlate nature study and lan- 

 guage exercises — and there are some teachers who 

 will persist in doing it — never lose sight of the 

 original-seeing nature study. 



Then, again, be sure that you know which is 

 nature study, and which is the drawing and lan- 

 guage, and just wherein is the correlation. 



Not long ago I had occasion to examine several 

 hundred letters from children engaged in a contest 

 of nature-study writing and drawing. Please note 

 that it was nature-study writing and drawing, not 

 a contest on writing and drawing nature study. 



Among the many letters was a particularly at- 

 tractive package of eighty, all from one school. 

 " Here is the prize," I thought, as I cut the pink 

 string and opened the neat foldings of firm manila 

 and delicate tissue paper within. The letters were 

 written on only one side of the sheet and not folded 

 which alone was enough to make them attrac- 

 tive to an editor. What beautiful vertical writing 

 (not that I am especially an advocate of that sys- 

 tem) but beautiful because it was so perfectly 

 legible. It was a pleasure to read. And the 

 capitalization and punctuation ? All perfect. 



