160 NATURE STUDY. 



ception back of it. Too often children have memorized 

 facts, definitions, formulas, words, words, words, 

 with very little real content in them. Nature study, 

 or science, is a protest against this kind or form of edu- 

 cation. For words it would substitute real ideas, sharp, 

 clear mental pictures, based primarily on sense-percep- 

 tion, and would use words as the means of clothing and 

 expressing or gaining ideas. 



In the reaction against too great dependence on word 

 memory, there is often a tendency toward the oppo- 

 site extreme. In emphasizing sense-perception, we are 

 prone to overlook the importance of memory as an edu- 

 cational factor, and to neglect that necessary drill in re- 

 producing what has been perceived and apperceived. 

 This tendency is very evident in much of the elemen- 

 tary science work in our schools. It is often assumed 

 that when children have seen and understood, little 

 more is to be done. Seeing and understanding are or 

 should be but the foundation and preparation for larger 

 and broader seeing and understanding ; and this larger 

 view is only possible when children keep in mind or re- 

 member the essentials of what has been learned before, 

 and constantly relate them to what is newly acquired. 



To train the memory, that is, to insure the repeat- 

 ing or reproduction in the mind of what has been seen 

 or otherwise perceived, nature points out three means 

 or methods : 



First. The original picture or impression should be 

 as clear and sharp as it is possible to make it. The 

 pupil who has examined a flower carefully will remem- 



