CHAPTER XIX 



YOUNG NATURALISTS IN THE MAKING 



NATURE Study, as I have already indicated in Chapter III., now 

 finds an honoured place in every school in the land, and experi- 

 ence teaches me it is one of the most eagerly anticipated lessons 

 in the school curriculum. Occasionally and especially among 

 senior girls one finds a certain indifference on the part of a 

 small proportion of one's pupils, but, among the hundred or 

 so under my own personal charge, I could count on the fingers 

 of one hand those who regard the study of Nature as a subject 

 only fit for the kindergarten, and as of little, if any, interest to 

 them. 



It is a privilege of which I am duly sensible to have a share in 

 encouraging a love of Nature among these lads and lasses, and 

 I fully realise that, as they grow up to be men and women, they 

 will keenly appreciate the opportunities which were presented 

 for outdoor studies during their school careers. 



It is pleasant, and indeed important, to recognise that these 

 young naturalists in the making will, in after-life, reap material 

 benefit from their juvenile experiences, for those of us who have 

 grown up under such benign influence can faithfully testify as 

 to the immense advantage of such an important factor in one's 

 early education. 



When I enter the class-room in Winter, or take the children 

 out of doors in Spring and Summer, expectancy always runs 

 high, and although at times my young charges are in such jubilant 

 spirits that it is with difficulty one is able to obtain the concen- 

 tration necessary for serious work, an appeal to their finer senses, 

 and code of honour, has a magnetic effect. 



" What is the lesson to-day, Sir ? " or " Where are we going 

 to-day, Sir ? " greets me from a hundred lusty throats as soon 

 as I am within earshot, each week of my life. There is very 

 little grumbling, an absence of shirking, and a co-operative 

 interest which makes the teaching of such a subject as that 

 under review a living revelation, and constant joy. 



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