SELECTION AND SEQUENCE OF MATERIAL. 301 



at the same time all stages in the formation of leaves, 

 flowers, and fruit. In these the child has before him, 

 in a form most easily understood, the whole story of 

 the development and work or function of each part of 

 the plant. The plants possess this advantage over the 

 animals, that all stages can be more readily studied at 

 the same time. 



In the animal study that material is best which can 

 be most readily studied alive by the children, the 

 snails, fish, crayfish, and other aquatic animals, and 

 the turtle, canary, and cat, which can most easily be 

 kept alive in the schoolroom, the insects, birds, and 

 domestic animals whose life and habits can be observed 

 by the children out-of-doors. Animals such as starfish, 

 corals, shells, and sponges, which cannot be seen alive, 

 and are valuable chiefly as types, are not so good for 

 study, particularly in the early work. 



Those minerals and rocks are best which tell a story. 

 The fossils in the limestone, the crystals, the ripple 

 marks or mud cracks, all lead to a "how" and "why" 

 which the children, properly directed, can work out 

 for themselves, in which they will be greatly interested, 

 by which they will be developed or educated. So, too, 

 the minerals most useful to man, such as graphite or 

 iron ore or coal or mica or asbestos, are excellent for 

 study. They, too, have a " why." 



The third aim of nature study, as summed up in 

 Chapter IV, is the development of the power of seeing, 

 thinking, and telling, and the formation of right habits, 



