104 NATURE STUDY. 



aims are ever before them, and who are so in sympathy 

 with children as to be guided in their work by the way 

 in which their pupils see and feel and think and do, 

 will not go far astray in their methods. Without this 

 appreciation of aim and sympathetic study of children, 

 the best methods degenerate into mere devices. 



" Why " is the most important question for the pupil 

 as well as for the teacher. The education of the past 

 has been too largely a study of " what." In history 

 and biography we have studied facts and events, revo- 

 lutions and battles and leaders. In science we have 

 studied form and structure, have emphasized mere iden- 

 tification and classification. We are learning that his- 

 tory is also a study of causes and results, of the working 

 out of great truths or principles, of gradual develop- 

 ment or evolution. In science we are beginning to in- 

 vestigate more carefully forces and agencies, to watch 

 processes, to emphasize action and change, life and 

 function and adaptation, of which form and structure 

 are but the results or the expression. 



One leading characteristic of the "new education" is 

 the pre-eminence of " why," and the subordination of 

 "what," or the looking beyond and through the "what" 

 to the "why." 



What is the aim of nature study? We shall find 

 that it is practically the same as the aim of other stud- 

 ies, or of education in general. 



More than is the case with most other studies, prob- 

 ably, science, or nature study, deals with the individual 



