P URPOSEFUL OBSER VA TION IN NA TU RE-STUD Y 325 



study ; but now that the researches of modern psychologists have 

 compelled the abandonment of the old theory of formal discipline, 

 one can no longer find any educational reason for pursuing this 

 kind of indiscriminate observation of any and all points. 



To meet this need of purposeful observation the teacher should 

 acquire a variety of children's problems. These problems should 

 be very specific, they should find their source in the present life of 

 the child, based on his immediate interests and needs; and they 

 should find the promise of their fulfilment in the near future. 



As an illustration of the point under discussion we may suppose 

 the topic of a lesson for primary grades is the hepatica. Instead 

 of a set of miscellaneous unorganized observations on the number, 

 color, size, and shape of the parts of the flower, and on the arrange- 

 ment, shape, size, margin, and veining of the leaves, there is need- 

 ed some definite limiting problem, in which the child is interested, 

 to determine what shall be observed, such as the following: "How 

 may the hepatica be distinguished from the anemone?" This 

 marks out definitely the field to be studied, and limits the obser- 

 vations to those points that help answer the problem. 



A good problem may in itself suggest the possibility of using the 

 knowledge gained. This consideration may help in determining 

 the value of a problem. In the case previously given the child has 

 an opportunity to apply what he has learned in distinguishing the 

 flowers as he sees them growing. 



The chief value of children's problems, however, as underlying 

 their use in directing study, lies in the fact that they act as a stim- 

 ulus to arouse the children's interest. Too often the stimulus 

 which directs the child in school is an external one, imposed from 

 without, heedless of the child's interests, in the form of fear of, or 

 love for teacher or parent. Real children's problems serve as a 

 natural internal stimulus arising from the child's interests, and 

 guiding the child to do things because they appeal to him and seem 

 worth while. vSuccessful teaching consists largely in arousing chil- 

 dren's interests. After the children are really interested, the rest 

 of teaching follows naturally and easily. The right kind of chil- 

 dren's problems is a powerful means of awakening interest. 

 Children like to do things not merely because they are commanded 

 by some one in authority over them, but because they can see some 

 benefit to come to them from doing a certain thing. And this in- 

 ternal stimulus leads to much more effective and lasting results 

 than the external stimulus. 



