SELECTION AND SEQUENCE OF MATERIAL. 303 



used for years. Animals cannot be so readily obtained 

 or kept in the schoolroom in numbers sufficient for in- 

 dividual study, and few schools have facilities for much 

 individual work in physics and chemistry. 



The study -of plants and animals is of special value 

 for the development of the powers of observation, de- 

 scription, comparison, discrimination, and classification. 

 As often pursued in higher institutions, the study of 

 botany and zoology does little more than this. 



The study of physics and chemistry constantly calls 

 into action the reasoning powers. It is an investigation 

 of " why," of cause and effect. It not merely develops 

 the power of reasoning, but requires fairly well-devel- 

 oned reasoning powers. Hence all but the merest rudi- 

 ments of physics and chemistry must be postponed until 

 the later years of the elementary school. 



Aside from the possibility of doing individual work, 

 the development of power in the children is much more 

 dependent on the method of study and the sequence of 

 topics than on the selection of material. These have 

 been discussed in Chapter VIII. 



We now come to the last and lowest aim of nature 

 study, the acquisition of knowledge or facts, and to the 

 influence of this aim in determining the selection of 

 material for study. 



By the emphasis placed on that course of study 

 which will best develop the higher nature of the child, 

 we have already answered the question, " What knowl- 

 edge is of most worth ? " But the selection of material 



