90 NATURE STUDY. 



to man, to his language and other methods of con- 

 veying ideas, to his methods of exact reasoning, and 

 to the way in which he has parcelled up the earth. 

 Everything has been centred about man, as the uni- 

 verse was once supposed to be centred about the 

 earth. Even geography, the study of which might well 

 have brought the pupils into closest relation with their 

 physical environment, has been, not a study of the 

 earth, of our physical environment, but almost entirely 

 a study of a description of the earth, and of a descrip- 

 tion, not to any great extent of physical forces, pro- 

 cesses, and features, but very largely of the divisions 

 made by man, and of the features due to man. The 

 schools have placed all emphasis on the "essentials," 

 reading, writing, and drawing, arithmetic and geog- 

 raphy. The children in these schools have studied 

 almost nothing of the other part of their environment, 

 the physical world, which forms such a large part of 

 their life. 



To-day the old conflict is being waged in these ele- 

 mentary schools. The champions of science are urging 

 the introduction from the beginning of the child's 

 school-life of some study of the world of sense which 

 lies about the child. This has been designated as ele- 

 mentary science, or nature study. 



It seems wise at the very beginning to determine just 

 what we mean by elementary science, or nature study. 

 This will prevent ambiguity and misunderstanding in 

 later discussions, 



