364 NA TURE-STUDY REVIEW 



I would not put any more material into the hands of the school. 

 We have too much there as it is. I would not suggest the following 

 program as an extra. It is an attempt to coordinate to a certain 

 extent the work in the departments of English, Art, and Music. 

 And all of this is to be woven into and to be shown a part of the 

 fabric which is known as human life. That is, Nature is studied 

 as the background, the setting of the human stage. The present 

 plan then is a union of the nature work with the literature. That 

 is, the nature aspect of the American Literature has been empha- 

 sized. 



Of course any such suggestion as this is in need of very great 

 and careful revision to suit the needs of the individual class and 

 time and locality. There is no sense of finality about the in- 

 clusions in any grade, as the outline is here given. 



The advantages of such a project to the course in literature 

 are that Nature is shown to be a part of life and literature. It is 

 the background of the literary stage. Art is taught to be resident 

 in the least labelled thing. Life is a succession of tableaus, of 

 character sketches, of the man's soul expression in a landscape or 

 a dwelling place. 



Unless the teacher knows music, drama, sculpture, painting, 

 and poetry quite as well as he knows his prose biography and prose 

 tales, he is not prepared to carry out such a program as here 

 represented. In selecting art and musical illustrations I have 

 seldom chosen great masterpieces. The masterpieces of music 

 would be beyond most of the students, and the masterpieces of 

 sculpture and painting seemed to me to be too far removed often, 

 rom the particular interests of the student. Therefore, I have 

 often taken little things of minor worth which seemed to me to 

 be more like the poetry of James Whitcomb Riley, nearer to the 

 heart,, than many another more elaborate, and less loved thing. 

 The American product has come first in our selection of literature, 

 and always first when possible in both music and art. However, 

 more often the exact illustration seemed so perfect when chosen 

 from another land, as in Millet's, "Sower," etc., that I could 

 not Americanize my subordinate groups. 



A word might be said concerning the class room which would be 

 required for such a project as this. An ideal classroom would be 

 well lighted, would have one portion screened off for an aviary. 



