THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



Vol. 18 October, 1922 No. 7 



Conservation and Nature-Studies in the Public 

 Schools of Washington, D.C. 



R. W. Shufeldt 



There is, at the present time, quite a struggle on foot in the 

 pubHc teaching centers of the District of Columbia, involving 

 certain lines of instruction; it has already reached a stage rather 

 complex in character, to say the least, there having been drawn 

 into the contest various officials of the United States Bureau of 

 Education; nearly all the teachers in the public schools; many 

 men and women of wealth; a large body of the parents of the 

 children attending the public schools, with a big scattering of 

 others more or less profoundly interested in the outcome of the 

 matters under debate. When viewed from the proper angle, the 

 various factors of the problem tinder discussion may readily be 

 appreciated; and they are, while dissociated in some respects, as 

 a matter of fact component parts of a certain great question in our 

 present-day methods of teaching in the schools of this country in 

 general and in the public schools in particular. 



The introduction of this comparatively new branch of teaching 

 calls for a class of especially instructed teachers, and these teachers 

 are expected to command training and knowledge of an unusual 

 character. 



The matters here to be discussed are by no means new to our 

 school directors, teachers, parents, and the public, as they have, 

 at different times, come before the teaching constituency in towns 

 and cities of all civilized countries, and were, many years ago, 

 especially agitated in England by Professor Huxley. 



259 



