mayxard] MISTAKES IX TEACH I XG 183 



about him have made him content. When I last saw him, when 

 on a visit to Pasadena, he romped with me like a puppy, but his 

 eyes will never lose that expression of having seen many sad 

 sights and having suffered untold miseries. Yet, I assure you 

 that he can be the jolliest kind of companion, as I learned during 

 the many weeks when we were together. 



What would you give to hold such a proud record as that of 

 my Dog Hero, "Rufus, the Red King"? 



Unfortunate Mistakes in the Teaching of Nature-Study 



Edith Clark Mayxard 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



May I make an especial appeal to the newly graduated college 

 students who attempt to teach nature-study to children in the 

 lower grades, so often their point of view is wrong? The following 

 incident will illustrate my meaning: A little girl of eight, who 

 has accompanied me on some of my field trips, sat beside me in 

 the car yesterday. Hardly had she settled herself before she 



began, "Oh Mrs. M ! We had for our nature-study lesson 



this week a turtle. Miss chloroformed it for us and 



showed us how, after it was dead, the heart still beat for seven 

 hours. I didn't like it." I never like to criticise another teacher's 

 work, but I could not resist acknowledging that I, too, "did not 

 like it." 



Such a lesson speaks for itself. If the young teacher (I infer 

 she is young and fresh from a biological laboratory) had 

 only stopped to think she would have realized her mistake. 

 The beating of the turtle's heart after death is an interesting 

 phenomenon, but its demonstration has no place in a nature- 

 study class room of little children. The killing of the animal 

 was a serious mistake. The sensitive, sympathetic child would 

 suffer, while to others the killing of other animals to see possibly 

 similar results would undoubtedly suggest itself. 



Contrast the effect upon children of such a lesson with one 

 which might so easily have been given at this season. Our birds 

 have begun their spring migration. The alders and willows 

 have put out their attractive catkins, while the red maple blos- 

 soms can easily be found. If these children had only been allowed 

 to study nature out-of-doors, under normal conditions, not one 

 of them would have made the comment "I do not like it." 



