WHAT IS NATURE STUDY? 89 



CHAPTER III. 



WHAT IS NATURE STUDY? 



FOB many years a struggle has been going on in our 

 higher institutions of learning between the upholders 

 of the classics and of the sciences. One class has lim- 

 ited education almost entirely to the study of man and 

 his languages, history, and literature, and to methods of 

 exact reasoning, or mathematics. The other has advo- 

 cated the study of man's surroundings, his physical en- 

 vironment, of the world in which man is placed and on 

 which he so largely depends. The defenders of the 

 classical education have been compelled to yield point 

 after point to the champions of the scientific education. 

 To-day we are coming to the conclusion that we can 

 get the best well-rounded, liberal education by a com- 

 promise between the two opposing schools, in the study 

 of man and nature. 



From the higher seats of learning the struggle has 

 passed into the secondary schools, the high schools and 

 academies, where a similar compromise is being effected, 

 or a sharp distinction made between the students taking 

 classical and those pursuing scientific courses. 



Our elementary schools have until recently confined 

 their work to the human studies, or studies relating 



