THE LIMITATIONS OF NATURE STUDY. 143 



lessons in geography. The experienced, well-equipped, 

 far-seeing teacher may possibly entirely dispense with 

 definite, formal lessons in language, spelling, capitals, 

 punctuation, grammar, drawing, geography, and arith- 

 metic, and teach them as incidental to nature study, 

 history, and literature. 



But the average teacher cannot do it to advantage'. 

 The inexperienced teacher is almost certain to fail in 

 the attempt. In not a few schools the attempt has 

 been made to teach all language work incidentally. 

 The result has almost invariably been detrimental to 

 the language work. In some schools arithmetic has 

 thus been taught incidentally as an adjunct to nature 

 study. Very rarely have the results been satisfactory. 



In the average school, with average teachers, under 

 average conditions, there must be more or less formal 

 work in the formal or expressive studies, work supple- 

 mentary to or independent of the work in these lines 

 based on the content studies. The amount of this 

 formal work which may be necessary depends on the 

 wisdom, tact, experience, and breadth of the individual 

 teacher. 



The limitations of nature study depend, in the ulti- 

 mate analysis, on the fact that it does not include any 

 adequate study of one division of the child's environ- 

 ment, man ; that it does not give the child the benefit 

 of the experiences of the past ; and that it does not, 

 under average conditions, provide for adequate work in 

 the formal studies of the school, particularly language, 

 drawing, and arithmetic. 



