54 The Nature-Study Idea 



creative method. It is a developing of the 

 powers of the pupil, not hearing him recite. 

 In spirit and method, it is opposed to the pour- 

 ing-in and dipping-out process. 



The nature-study effort sets our thinking in 

 the direction of our daily doing. It relates the 

 schoolroom to the life that the child is to lead. 

 It makes the common and familiar affairs seem 

 to be worth the while. It ought to make men 

 and women effective and responsible. Essen- 

 tially, it is not an ideal for the school any more 

 than it is for the home ; but so completely do we 

 delegate all work of teaching and instructing to 

 the school, that nature-study effort comes to be, 

 in practice, a schoolroom subject. The ideal 

 of the parent or the teacher should be to bring 

 the child into natural relations with its world; 

 but whatever may be in the mind and hope of 

 the teacher, so far as the child is concerned the 

 nature-sympathy must come as a natural effect 

 of actual observation and study of definite 

 objects and phenomena. 



I will mention two forms of adaptation to 

 life, as illustrations of what I mean, (i) Na- 



