102 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [13:3— Mar., 1917 



chance to put one or more teachers really interested in the subject, 

 and aiming at a definite performance, in charge of nature-study. 

 Of course where the alternating corps has to be obtained from the 

 faculty of the former school, and where the former school was 

 steeped in sin, that will make of nature-study a farce. And, 

 indeed, with great freedom to select, the Gary school will find a 

 dearth of well prepared applicants. Normal pupils usually get a 

 limited range of nature work, and college science graduates rarely 

 have pedagogy or power of class control. 



The other suggestion is a science supervisor, not only belonging 

 to the school system, but connected also with the local museum, 

 or park system, or science department of the state or city college 

 or normal school. Such schemes have been tried, I believe. 

 St. Louis subsumes the museum under the school system; Buffalo 

 pays a nominal price for science delivered from outside. New 

 York refuses science in toto, and takes it piecemeal, at the hands 

 of outside agencies. Each locality has its own conditions. My 

 belief is that, all other things being equal, the supervisor should 

 be of the schools; should do more about teaching than about 

 science, for if teaching methods were good science could easily 

 be taught; should get her scientific pabulum and material from 

 the best sources in the locality, by some definite and even legal 

 relation rather than by courtesy, and should be well provided 

 with two things — means of conveyance for herself and her 

 materials, and opportunity for advertisement and public com- 

 mendation of her functions and results. When using public 

 funds to do for the children of a community what was not done 

 for their parents in their young days, never fail to let your right 

 hand know what your left hand does, and secure public encomiums 

 for each apparently doubtful feature of the work. Do not let 

 the townsfolks know that there is a chicken in the kindergarten 

 and a turtle in the cloak room, that the first grade is studying 

 pumpkins and the fifth grade junketing in the fields during school 

 hours, through your critics first. When the accusation comes, 

 see to it that the judges "knowed it afore." 



So, in time, may the children of our country regain their lost 

 heritage which too many of us feel has been sold to the academic 

 ideal at a great price. 



