THE AIM OF NATURE STUDY. 107 



knowledge of our physical environment, or of anything 

 else, is not necessarily power. We need more than 

 knowledge, or more than this kind of knowledge. 



The development of the intellectual powers of the 

 child has become, or is becoming, the ultimate aim of 

 many teachers ; and the acquisition of knowledge, or of 

 facts, has become of secondary importance. We are 

 more and more endeavoring in our schools, from uni- 

 versity to kindergarten, to have our students get more 

 than facts ; we are striving to develop their intellectual 

 powers, of seeing or apprehending for themselves, 

 of thinking or combining ideas in their relations, of 

 expressing or conveying these ideas to others, and of 

 doing or making their ideas active or effective. 



The same development or evolution of ideals or aims 

 has, consciously or unconsciously, determined the char- 

 acter of the work in nature study, or elementary science, 

 in our schools. At first teachers placed all emphasis on 

 the importance of a knowledge of the facts of the physi- 

 cal world ; and the schools have been flooded with 

 Nature Primers and Nature Readers, and Hours with 

 Nature, good, bad, and indifferent, to meet the de- 

 mand of the school-men and school-women. Too often 

 the study of nature has stopped with the reading of 

 these books. Unfortunately, in many schools we have 

 not yet passed beyond this first stage in the introduc- 

 tion of nature study. 



A host of teachers have, however, realized the im- 

 portance of a higher aim, and are insisting on personal, 



