206 NA TURE-STUDY REVIEW 



A New Outline in Nature Study, Humaneness and 

 Elementary Agriculture. 



A plan of study which may be followed in a system of schools 

 in a city is not practical many times in a one room rural school. 

 But aside from the fact that the same material is not always 

 easily available there is really no reason why a plan of study 

 which can be put into practice in a rural school should not prove 

 satisfactory in a city school system. For these reasons, it would 

 seem best that any plan of study which is to be more or less uni- 

 formly followed throughout the State should keep the problems 

 of the rural teacher in mind at all times. 



A rural school consists of children of varied degrees of ma- 

 turity and preparation. A city school consists of a selected group 

 of children with a more or less uniform preparation. It is ob- 

 viously, easier for the city teacher to plan and prepare the work 

 than for the rural teacher to do this. . If the rural teacher can 

 plan the work so that all of the pupils may be kept busy at the 

 same time on a given subject, so much the better. If but one 

 preparation is necessary to care for the needs of eight different 

 grades at once, then, it is better yet. This outline is an attempt 

 to so simplify and organize the sources of information available 

 to rural teachers that nature study may practically take care 

 of itself. 



An ideal nature study lesson might be one based on anything 

 of interest found on a trip or brought into school by any child. 

 Few teachers could give a real lesson under the circumstances 

 which would arise following a practice of this sort at the present 

 time. With the help of the outline which follows, this ideal 

 may possibly be more nearly approached than has been possible 

 in the past. 



One lesson gives us but a meager idea of the possibilities of 

 any branch of learning and in order to best appreciate the subject 

 it should be approached from many angles. For this reason, a 

 bit of guidance in the selection of material will possibly produce 

 better results than if teachers are allowed perpetually to follow 

 our own inclinations. This idea of "guidance" is not new. Too 

 frequently, however, it has been carried to such extremes that 

 it has developed into "requirement." Requirements are often 

 more or less odious and frequently seriously besmirch an otherwise 

 interesting field of knowledge. 



