238 NATURE STUDY. 



and man study, and to the ultimate centre, God study, 

 and the grouping of all school-work about these centres, 

 were considered in Chapter VI. 



All the studies of the elementary school may be di- 

 vided, in a general way, into two classes : those which 

 are directly concerned with nature and man and God, 

 and those which are concerned with the means of con- 

 veying and relating what is learned about nature and 

 man and God. In the first of these classes are in- 

 cluded such studies as literature and art, history and 

 science, and much of geography ; in the latter, such 

 studies as language, oral and written, drawing and 

 arithmetic. 



In literature and history we study man, his nota- 

 ble deeds and great thoughts and slow development. 

 In science we study nature. Geography is a study 

 of nature and of man's relation to nature. All of 

 these have a value in themselves, dependent on 

 what they contain, the knowledge or ideas or inspira- 

 tion we get from them. So we call them content 

 studies. 



On the other hand, language and drawing have very 

 little value in themselves, at least as they are and must 

 be taught in the elementary schools ; their value is 

 determined by what we can do with them, what we can 

 express or convey to others or gain from others through 

 them. Hence they have been called instrumental or 

 expressive studies. As the value of these studies de- 

 pends mainly on what can be done with them (rather 

 than on what they contain in themselves), and this is 



