hendricks] HOME MUSEUM OF NATURE-STUDY 151 



ness" of too much home coddling. Many a mother would find 

 that putting up with the debris of such a museum is much more 

 easily borne than the coarse habits formed by those sons that 

 have been driven from such overnice dwellings into the street 

 and alleys because some things that really interest boys were 

 "too dirty to have in the house." 



To the man of affairs it should be said that "man does not live 

 by bread alone, but by every word that procedeth out of his 

 mouth." The time has arrived when a man's life is measured not 

 by what he gets, but by what he gives. That man gives most, 

 who has really learned to form the habit of seeing both much and 

 minutely. It seems reasonable to assume that he who has 

 searched nature's nooks and crannies for all sorts of interesting 

 and novel things, will not desist from this pleasant enterprise later 

 in life simply because he has become a man. In most cases this 

 work will not be a basis for his livelihood but rather an important 

 one of those assisting factors classified in family budgets as con- 

 tributing to higher life. On the other hand examples might be 

 cited of men who have, in their boyhood days, taken an active 

 interest in the natural world and later have turned this interest 

 into tremenduously worth-while things for those who followed 

 after them. 



In answer to our formalistic school teacher, it is to be remem- 

 bered that "the letter killeth but the spirit maketh alive." 

 Arithmetic problems built upon an interest growing out of 

 nature's problem, have, because of their foundation, that spirit 

 which will make them vital to the pupil. If more of the maps in 

 geography were made as an expression of routes and points of 

 interest in tramps about the country instead of merely meeting 

 some arbitrary requirement of a course of study, they would be 

 of infinitely more value as a factor in the mental training of youth. 



It is a consummation devoutly to be wished, that our teachers 

 become broad enough to recognize and acknowledge that their 

 contribution is but a drop in the great life bucket of training for 

 the pupils. This would lead the teacher to put a proper evalua- 

 tion upon the many things outside of the school room which 

 are often more important in the life training of the child than 

 those she contributes. This means that she will constantly give 

 such things prestige in the eyes of the pupils by relating the more 

 formal instruction of the school room to them. Such a teacher 



