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Vol. 10 January, 1914 No. i 



Nature-Study and the Teaching of Elementary 

 Agriculture 



Extracts from Annual Address by President of American 

 Nature-Study Society 



There is an educational wave sweeping over this country, — ^that 

 of teaching agriculture in the elementary schools. This some- 

 times takes the form of children's gardens and sometimes the 

 raising of special crops for prizes or for market. Whether this 

 wave will have its ebb and leave naught but ooze over our educa- 

 tional system or whether it keeps on at steady flow depends on 

 how fundamental is the teaching. A thumb-rule method of 

 raising com and tomatoes or of planting a garden will never hold 

 fast agriculture in the educational curriculimi. This for two 

 reasons: First, because it soon palls upon the pupil. After he 

 has done it once or twice he then loses interest because it is an 

 old story. Second, because it has the value of what in college 

 parlance is called "a stunt" rather than a matter of fundamental 

 interest. Thumb-rule gardening, com, potato or tomato growing 

 will never induce the army of youth to be satisfied with the tillage 

 of land. 



The only way to make this movement of permanent value is to 

 ground it in nature-study, because in nature-study the child finds 

 the answer to the "why" of agriculture; and the following up of 

 this "why" broadens out in so many directions that there is no 

 chance of the agricultural processes becoming an old story. There 

 is enough of nature-study connected with every crop to keep up 

 interest for an indefinite period. 



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