PREFACE. 



Harrisburg, Pa., June 25, 1900. 



The following Bulletin, giving a course in Nature Study for the 

 public schools, is one of the most important and valuable of all of 

 those which the Department has hitherto published. The course was 

 outlined and prepared by Miss Louise Miller, who for several years 

 had charge of Nature Study work in the schools of Detroit, Mich., and 

 will commend itself to natural history teachers as being not only sci- 

 entifically accurate and exceedingly suggestive, but as also out- 

 lining in a systematic way, a branch and method of education pecu- 

 liarly adapted to country schools. The study of nature, by observing 

 the things themselves, is the new and rational method of instruction 

 and constitutes what now is known by the modern name, "Nature 

 Study.- 7 



This bulletin is intended as a guide to teachers, indicating the 

 subjects adapted to each grade of scholars, and giving the order in 

 which the subject ought to be pursued. An inspection of the work 

 proposed by this course will show how much there is in the vicinity 

 of every country school to interest and instruct in the numerous 

 natural objects, in regard to which the mass of our population have 

 but little knowledge, and which, if properly presented, may be, at 

 least partially understood, by the smallest pupil. 



The bulletin is also informal notice to teachers in Pennsylvania 

 that in the near future, such instruction as it outlines, will be re- 

 quired in every country school. Those, therefore, who wish to follow 

 this profession will do well to acquaint themselves with the method 

 here presented, and begin preparation for the work to be performed, 

 so that when their examiners come to question them as to natural ob- 

 jects, whose uses and characteristics they are expected to under- 

 stand and explain to others, they may be ready to answer intelli- 

 gently, and satisfactorily perform the duties required. 



This is no new fad in education, but is older than the Common- 

 wealth itself. William 'Penn, near the close of his life, in a work 

 entitled "Reflections and Maxims," suggested substantially the 

 method now proposed to be pursued in the education of our youth. 

 His words are so closely in accord with advanced modern thought in 

 education along nature study lines, that I present them here in full 

 in the hope that the most conservative may be influenced to accept 



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