186 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [17:4— April, 1921 



and at the same time afford ample opportunity for acquiring an 

 interest in out-of-door-life and indulging in as much love for nature 

 as may be desirable. Of course, the details of such a plan would 

 have to be worked out by the individual instructor. Modifications 

 will be necessary to meet individual needs, but the plan is perfectly 

 feasible. It will, however, require a great deal of thought and care 

 on the part of the instructor. It is firmly believed that the 

 results will be well worth the time and efforts devoted to elaborating 

 the method. * 



The ideal nature teacher is a man. The writer is well aware 

 that the women who are doing this sort of work are accomplishing 

 a great deal of. good, but it is nevertheless his opinion that a man 

 is better adapted to nature work of the type indicated here than 

 is a woman. It is conceivable that a man might teach embroidery 

 as well or better than a woman, but a man in such a position would 

 be an absurdity. The same sort of absurdity would exist, although 

 in a much lesser degree in a woman teaching this sort of nature 

 work. Not only is a man better fitted by nature, but he has 

 better access to interesting swamps and hills, to caves on the 

 mountain side, and to the tops of trees where bird's nests may 

 be found. He may be very agile, but he will scarcely reach places 

 which are inaccessible to the girls. He should not be a professional 

 teacher, for in spite of hi-s efforts to the contrary, such a man is 

 generally an instructor rather than an educator. Neither should 

 he be a trained naturalist. It is far more important that he should 

 see Aurora in the sunrise than that he should explain the phenom- 

 enon as light rays reflected from particles of dust suspended in the 

 atmosphere. Better than he should find elves in the woods and 

 nymphs in the water, than that he should see nothing but decaying 

 organic matter in the forest and find the water swarming with 

 bacteria. Here again the writer does not wish to be understood 

 as advocating the introduction of fairies into nature, but of the 

 two extremes it is better that he should find the woods peopled 

 with these creatures than that he should see in nature only the 

 recurring processes of life, death, fermentation and decay. In 

 other words the ideal nature teacher should have a genuine love 

 for nature rather than a technical knowledge of biological and 

 physical sciences. 



