HODGE] TRAINING OF TEACHERS 303 



prepared for it, our teachers could set us well forward toward 

 saving our billion dollar tax now annually paid to preventable 

 disease. Nature-study and civic biology should be the comer 

 stone of national vigor and health conservation.* 



If we make this instruction really good enough, we reach bad 

 health conditions in the homes as we can in no other way. One 

 girl writes Dr. Dawson: "The biology course revealed so many 

 interesting things to me that sometimes I could hardly wait until 

 I reached home to tell my mother. The knowledge of civic biol- 

 ogy was so badly needed in our home that it was impossible for me 

 to keep quiet on the subject." And the "mother" in question 

 testifies that the family got almost as much benefit from the course 

 as did the daughter. 



Of course, all such divisions are recognized as artificial, but, giv- 

 en the true spirit and a strong, resilient body, the third element in 

 adequate preparation — a strong clear mind — is apt to be a natur- 

 al consequence of the other two. By this I mean mental vigor and 

 resourcefulness which gives the teacher power to use materials at 

 hand, the elements and opportunities of the envoironment, and 

 organize them into just the course in nature-study or civic biology 

 which the community needs. This is the diametrical opposite of 

 that deadening "preparation" which so often leads the proverbial 

 normal student to cry out: "Dear teacher, I have come to the 

 end of my note book. What shall I do?" 



In this work, as nowhere else, we need clear-headed common 

 sense. I know a school superintendent who in visiting his country 

 districts attempted to stimulate interest in nature-study about us 

 as follows: 



"How many of you boys and girls have ever seen a frog?" (Every hand in 

 the room up.) "Yes you all know the frogs, I see. How many of you boys 

 and girls ever saw a frog winkV (Every hand in the room down.) 



"What! Not one of you ever saw a frog wink! Well, for country boys and 

 girls I am ashamed of you. Next time I come around I shall expect you all to 

 be able to tell me how a frog winks. ^' 



He moved to another district. His district was in an uproar. 

 People were not slow in telling him that they did not send their 

 children to school to learn how frogs winked! Everything that 

 went by the name of "nature-study" suffered in consequence. 



*See in this connection a brief paper by Dr. Jean Dawson: Some Effects 

 of Civic Biology in the Home, School Science and Mathematics, 191 2, i)p 313- 

 321. 



