PRINCIPLES DETERMINING METHOD. 151 



all later work will be weak, because built on weak 

 foundations. 



The education of the past has been almost entirely 

 an education of listening and absorbing, and appropriat- 

 ing, not of seeing and getting for ourselves. Teachers 

 have learned to depend on books. In the writer's expe- 

 rience with teachers, one of the most common questions 

 has been, " Where can I find a book which will tell 

 me all about it?" Teachers have given to their pu- 

 pils, instead of leading the pupils to get for themselves. 

 In nature study the first great struggle of teachers will 

 be at this point, to overcome the habits so firmly 

 fixed ; to allow the younger pupils, and encourage and 

 compel the older pupils, to use and depend on their own 

 senses, to really base their work on sense-perception. 



The necessity of basing all nature study on sense- 

 perception, of laying the foundations in actual seeing 

 and observation by each pupil, must greatly influence 

 method ; it must largely determine the selection of ma- 

 terial and the order of study. Other things being equal, 

 we must select for study that which can be best per- 

 ceived or seen, and begin our study of anything with 

 that which appeals most to the senses. This has been 

 illustrated in Chapter II. 



It must be remembered, also (as was brought out 

 in Chapter III), that knowledge must be based not 

 merely on sense-perception, but on " clear and certain 

 perception." Too much emphasis cannot be placed 

 on careful, exact observation, so far as the children are 

 capable of exact work. 



