i8 The Nature-Study Idea 



of the great educational reformers Comenius, 

 Pestalozzi, Jean J. Rousseau, Froebel and 

 the others. In a large measure, the spirit of 

 our present-day nature-study movement which 

 seems so new to us is a recrudescence. Just 

 now it represents a reaction from the dry-as- 

 dust science-teaching. 



What we may legitimately call nature-study, 

 in the current acceptation of the term, began- to 

 take form in this country from 1884 to 1890. 

 Who first used the term I do not know; and it 

 is of small consequence, because the term may 

 mean much or nothing. The term appears to 

 have been at first a substitute for "object les- 

 sons," "plant work," "elementary science," and 

 the like. Dr. Piez, of the Oswego (N. Y.) 

 Normal School, makes the following comment 

 on the pedagogical origin of the nature-study 

 idea: "I have come to the conclusion that 

 nature-study in spirit, if not in name, is the 

 direct descendant of object teaching. Object 

 teaching aimed at the use of the senses in acquir- 

 ing knowledge, and was introduced to displace 

 the mechanical 'memory' method current in the 



