256 NATURE STUDY. 



Yet even class reproductions can be made very help- 

 ful in training pupils in individuality, truthfulness, 

 clearness and order. If in such work the teacher ac- 

 cepts only those statements which the pupils who give 

 them have discovered or verified for themselves, if she 

 insists that each statement be accurate and as clear as 

 the pupils can make it, and if she selects and arranges 

 the statements so that there is a sequence in the result- 

 ing class reproduction, the work becomes an excellent 

 preparation for individual work. 



Lead each child to see and think for himself ; then 

 he will have something to express, and will not merely 

 repeat what he has heard. Discourage in every way 

 mere appropriation from others. It is a species of steal- 

 ing, and children can be taught to consider it dishonor- 

 able. 



Encourage the personal pronoun in the description. 

 The expression is much more apt to be individual when 

 it is personal. The child who tells about " my " leaf 

 or flower or stone, or about what " I " did and saw and 

 thought, is almost certain to tell his own observations in 

 his own way. 



Do not accustom the pupils too much to the pumping 

 process, nor lead them always to depend on questions to 

 draw them out. This weakens the pupils. Questions, 

 clear, definite, logical, are necessary at first. They 

 make the observations orderly and definite. If placed 

 on the board, the pupils have time to think about them, 

 to observe and answer more carefully. But the pupils 

 are apt to see only enough to answer the questions. 



