200 NATURE STUDY. 



* 



study of many things, such as ants, crickets, mallows, 

 trees, birds, buttercups, stones, earthworms, dissemina- 

 tion of seeds, it may be necessary to go only a few hun- 

 dred feet from the schoolhouse, even in the heart of a 

 city, and may not require more than half an hour or an 

 hour. A field lesson with the teacher and one pupil in 

 attendance will lead the teacher to look at nature, to 

 some extent, from the standpoint of her pupils, and aid 

 her in adapting herself to her pupils. 



Nothing so draws together teacher and pupils, making 

 them fellow-students and fellow-investigators of truth, 

 as well-conducted field lessons, where they are on the 

 same plane, the teacher often becoming a pupil, the 

 pupils, who are so much nearer to nature than their 

 teacher, often becoming teachers. 



Much concerning the natural environment or home of 

 what is being studied can usually be drawn from the 

 children. Many or most children have an unsuspected 

 store of nature lore, like Whittier's " Barefoot Boy " : 



" Knowledge never learned of schools, 

 Of the wild bee's morning chase, 

 Of the wild-flower's time and place, 

 Flight of fowl and habitude 

 Of the tenants of the wood ; 

 How the tortoise bears his shell, 

 How the woodchuck digs his cell, 

 And the ground-mole sinks his well ; 

 How the robin feeds her young, 

 How the oriole's nest is hung ; 

 Where the whitest lilies blow, 

 Where the freshest berries grow, 

 Where the groundnut trails its vine, 



