THE AIM OF NATURE STUDY. 105 



child, and aims to develop each child as an individual. 

 It places the material in the hands of each child^ and 

 expects him to see and think and tell for himself. Na- 

 ture is many-sided ; and when pupils observe for them- 

 selves, each will have a different point of view, will see 

 a different side. The teacher will thereby be helped to 

 realize the difficulty, the impossibility, and, finally, the 

 viciousness, of teaching en masse, of teaching classes 

 rather than individuals, and will recognize, respect, and 

 at length encourage and develop, the individuality and 

 self-reliance of the pupil. 



In discussing aims it will be helpful to consider first 

 the aims which have determined the character of much 

 of the work in science, or nature study, in the past. 



As men began to realize how dependent they were on 

 the physical world about them, their physical environment, 

 they were impressed with the necessity of becoming ac- 

 quainted with that environment. The earliest recognized 

 object of science, or nature study, or of study or educa- 

 tion of any kind, was knowledge, the acquisition of facts. 



As knowledge (using the term in the older and nar- 

 rower sense), the acquisition of information or facts, 

 was considered the great object of science or education 

 in general, it was natural and inevitable to place great 

 emphasis on the study of books as the storehouses of 

 facts, and on memorizing as the simplest method of 

 acquiring facts. For this reason most of the work in 

 science and in all education was for centuries mere 

 book-work. Even to-day in our schools the study of 

 geography, which has been defined as the study of the 



