32 The Nature-Study Idea 



nature-study leaflets are information leaflets. 

 We must begin with the fact, to be sure, but the 

 lesson lies in the significance of the fact. It is 

 not necessary that the fact have direct practical 

 application to the daily life, for the purpose is 

 the effort to train the mind and the sympathies 

 and to develop in the child a correct view of 

 nature. It is a common notion that when the 

 subject-matter is insects, the pupil should be 

 taught the life-histories of injurious insects and 

 how to destroy the pests. Now, nature-study 

 may be equally valuable to the pupil, whether 

 the subject is the codlin-moth or the ant, since 

 both may be within his sphere and his relations; 

 but to confine the pupil's attention to insects 

 that are injurious to man is to give him a dis- 

 torted, partial and untrue view of nature. A 

 bouquet of daisies does not represent a meadow. 

 It is not a program for the teaching of 

 morals. Children should be interested more 

 in seeing things live and in studying their habits 

 than in killing them. Yet I should not empha- 

 size the injunction, "Thou shalt not kill." I 

 should prefer to have the child become so much 



