RELATION TO GEOGRAPHY AND 



CHAPTER XIII. 



RELATION OF NATURE STUDY TO GEOGRAPHY AND 

 ARITHMETIC. 



THE word geography means a description of the 

 earth, and the study of geography has been literally 

 a study of a description of the surface of the earth. 

 Most of the geography of the past, in American schools, 

 has been entirely, or almost entirely, book-work, a mem- 

 orizing of the natural and political divisions of the 

 earth's surface, and of the definitions of the forms of 

 land and water, with much study, always from books, 

 of cities, products and commerce and peoples. 



Real earth study, actual observation of that part of the 

 earth in which our boys and girls and their teachers live, 

 has been almost unknown. Only within a few years 

 have the better teachers in American schools realized 

 the importance of careful observational study of home 

 geography, as the only basis for any clear understanding 

 or thorough study of the larger physical environment. 



More and more we realize, in geography as in other 

 studies, that sense-perception and observation must be 

 the foundation or basis of school- work; that only through 

 the careful observation of what is about us, what ap- 

 peals to our senses, can we lay the best foundation, on 



