212 NATURE STUDY. 



during the last year, some dissection may be wise, but 

 should usually be done by the teacher. Animals which 

 are domesticated or are pets, such as kittens, should 

 never be dissected before, or for, or by the children. 



During the first two or three years children should 

 never be allowed to pull to pieces plants or flowers. 

 In later grades they should do no more of this than is 

 absolutely necessary. They should learn to reverence 

 life, plant or animal. 



Closely related is the question as to the advisability 

 of using microscope or magnifying-glasses. Nature 

 study should lead the child to study the world about 

 him, and to use the instrument he has, his own eyes. 

 Compound microscopes open a new world. While they 

 add to the interest and gratify curiosity, while they are 

 helpful in studying pollen grains and butterfly scales, 

 and the compound eyes of insects and the breathing- 

 pores of leaves, they are not necessary for work with 

 children, and give them little of much educational 

 value. Children do not understand much of what they 

 see in a compound microscope with a high magnifying 

 power, partly because they do not relate it to what they 

 see with their unaided eyes, partly because such a mi- 

 croscope shows at any adjustment only a section of an 

 object in the plane which is in focus, and they do not 

 relate the different planes seen at different adjustments. 

 Simple microscopes are helpful in work with pupils in 

 the upper grades in bringing out details of structure. 

 They should be used very sparingly and carefully with 

 young children, as they are apt to strain the eyes. 



