66 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [17:2— Feb., 1921 



Study has just been made out for the City of New York. If you 

 were to read over the old course of study and then compare it with 

 this new one, you would be much interested in the materials chosen 

 for work in the old schedule and the applications made. In the old 

 course, it is suggested in one place, and in fact this is the sort of 

 suggestion running through the entire course, that in a certain 

 grade in the school every child should be provided with a specimen 

 of blossoming arbutus. It was determined by one specialist that 

 if all the little second grades in the city were provided with individ- 

 ual specimens of arbutus all the arbutus plants an3rwhere near the 

 City of New York would be put to use. That was not even a 

 sensible suggestion of materials to be used, but in the present 

 course of study it suggests that teachers use any everyday kind of 

 material of the section in which the children live. If we have 

 children from the outside sections, and we have many such sections, 

 the new course suggests using the common materials nature herself 

 provides ; in a pushcart section, using the fruits the children see and 

 are familiar with on the pushcarts and make these the center of 

 interest. How much one might unfold to children with just these 

 common everyday things! Think of the plebian onion consumed 

 in such quantities! Think how far back its history runs — back 

 even to the time of the pyramids. Think of the foreign relation- 

 ship that fruits and vegetables present. Imagine the fascinating 

 tales one might unfold if he were willing to put a little time and 

 thought on just this type of nature-study. We hear a great deal in 

 these days about selection of subjects for project work. There is 

 nothing new in these twenty years of work in the idea of projects 

 and hobbies. Good teachers of twenty years ago were giving 

 children special pieces of work to study, to hunt up, to describe, and 

 to experiment over at home and abroad. The fine and understand- 

 ing teacher always exists. The use of material by a teacher in her 

 work is the third degree which reveals the type of work that teacher 

 expects to do, the type of person she is, and the results she is bound 

 to obtain. Much of our best study of today is presented in the 

 form of problems of some kind, class problems, groups problems, 

 and personal problems so that these become part of a child's thought 

 and consideration for some length of time. For instance, we may 

 teach a lesson on trees, shall it be for example, a lesson in ev^er- 

 greens? Where does it lead us ? Shall we just learn to recognize 

 those evergreens which are available or shall we go further and 

 make our blue-prints, mount them, and have the children talk 



