246 NATURE STUDY. 



Drawing is a most helpful and important means of 

 expressing what is gained in nature study. It is the 

 most natural, the clearest, the most exact, and the 

 most concise medium for expressing many of those ideas 

 which come through the eyes. In the work in schools 

 it can be used mainly for expressing form and relative 

 position. Drawing cannot be used very largely by av- 

 erage school-children for telling about life and action 

 and function. 



Unless aided by drawing, nature study, or science, 

 loses much of its value. On the other hand, nothing has 

 done more than nature study to demonstrate the value 

 of drawing in our elementary schools as a language or 

 means of expression. As nature study has been intro- 

 duced, and more emphasis placed on sense-perception, 

 and particularly on the importance of using the eyes, 

 more attention has been given to drawing as a means of 

 expressing what is seen. Drawing is an eye language, 

 in many respects the best eye language. 



Mr. Henry T. Bailey, State Supervisor of Drawing 

 of Massachusetts, has said, "The advocates of nature 

 study, not the drawing-teachers, have had the honor of 

 opening blind eyes to see drawing as a living language 

 within the reach of all. " 



Drawing is a most natural form of expression. There 

 is a natural relation, which appeals to the eye, between 

 an object, such as a bud, and a drawing or picture of 

 such an object, a relation which any child of any 

 nationality may discover. There is no natural relation 

 between the object bud and the oral or written or 



