wright] NATURE-STUDY FOR THE CITY CHILD 95 



best systems of education tend to produce — an efficient bit of 

 machinery that will fit into some particular place and whirl 

 madly with the whole. 



We must ask ourselves, why this is true. Is it not because 

 there is never time for either teacher or pupils to take a look at the 

 whole? All is a mad hurry to keep up with the system. The 

 fundamental three R's have become six or eight. The teacher 

 must now be an expert in modeling, an artist with pencil and 

 brush, a musician, must be receptive to the latest ideas in phonetics 

 or the newest system of writing. By the end of the day she feels 

 as if she had been managing a vaudeville performance or a three- 

 ring circus. Her personality cannot but become subservient to all 

 these, whereas the personality should be dominant, for it is 

 personalities that we would train. 



Facing such facts as these, dare we advocate the addition of 

 another subject— nature-study. Yes! Most emphatically, yes; 

 for it will lessen the burden, not add to it, change the point of 

 view, and make all knowledge come from a point touching the 

 life of the child. As already shown, this work arouses the powers 

 of observation and awakens an appreciation of surroundings. 

 In addition, there is no other instrument as powerful to develop 

 individual-personality. The type seen in the second man in the 

 incident is the kind we would train our children to become — awake 

 to their surroundings, keen and alert to all forces acting around 

 them, and their minds receptive to many ideas. It is hard 

 for children to recognize that the improvement of an opportunity 

 is gain to themselves. It is so much easier to sit back with mouths 

 open and have only sugar-coated facts poured in. But such facts 

 do not seem to them to be a part of their own lives, or in any 

 particular related to them. Knowledge to become a part of their 

 lives, must be linked with their own observations. It is right 

 here that nature-study will prove a great help, for it will change 

 the whole aspect of our educational system. There is no better 

 means for training children to observe and then to digest their obser- 

 vations than in the natural objects around all of us : for the country 

 child, the babbling brook or the fiery oriole — nature undisturbed; 

 for the city child, the fish of the market or wharf, the fruits or 

 nuts of the store — natural objects in the commercial world. 

 Experience as a citv teacher convinces me that we must use this 



