158 HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 



To attain both ends, I have found it convenient 

 to make a threefold assignment, from which a 

 choice may be taken : 



1. Bringing in a specimen and telling where it 

 was obtained, with statement of any interesting 

 facts connected with it. 



2. A story of entertaining truths that I have 

 seen, read or been told, about natural objects. 



3. Assignment of some topic to be investi- 

 gated from books or other sources of information. 

 Thus, for example, asbestos has been for the past 

 weeks a timely topic, because it has been referred 

 to so frequently in the newspapers in connection 

 with theater curtains, since the fire that caused so 

 great a loss of life in the Chicago theater. Radium 

 is another good topic. The pupils should tell what 

 they have read or heard regarding this wonderful 

 metal. The teacher corrects any wrong impres- 

 sions that the children may have acquired, and 

 states any facts of interest she may have readily 

 obtained from the many popular articles in various 

 periodicals. 



By this method of choice in nature-study work 

 or interests, the pupils have no odious task to per- 

 form, neither is the period one of shirking, nor an 

 exhibition of laziness on the part of a few. 



