142 NATURE STUDY. 



The second limitation of the educational value of na- 

 ture study, or science, depends on the fact that it does 

 not provide for any adequate study of the experiences 

 and examples of the past, and does not impress those 

 lessons and truths which can be most readily and effec- 

 tively gained from the study of human experiences and 

 human examples. 



The third limitation of nature study depends on the 

 fact that while it may be, with history and literature, a 

 basis for other studies of the school, reading, writ- 

 ing, drawing, geography, and, to some extent, arithme- 

 tic, it does not necessarily provide for adequate formal 

 work in these studies. It is a content study. It gives 

 matter or ideas. Through the other formal studies 

 these ideas must be related and expressed. In nature 

 study or literature or history, the essential thing is the 

 idea ; in the formal studies, the important thing is 

 the form, means, or method of expressing or relating 

 the ideas. 



When the child has studied the robin, and is writing 

 about it, the ideas he expresses are gained from nature 

 study; but he must know something of language, of 

 spelling and capitals and punctuation, to express these 

 ideas properly. 



It may be possible to make the formal studies 

 such as language, drawing, and arithmetic entirely 

 incidental to the content studies, science, literature, 

 and history. In every lesson in nature study the child 

 should be studying, often unconsciously, language. 



Most lessons in history and literature may be made 



