312 NATURE STUDY. 



be developed or adapted, are so closely related that 

 it is almost impossible to separate them in the discus- 

 sion. 



The more important mental or psychological charac- 

 teristics of the child, and the relation of these to method, 

 were considered in Chapters VII and VIII. What was 

 there presented applies to the selection and sequence 

 of material as well as to other phases of method. 



Remembering that all work with children must be 

 based on sense-perception, apperception, and interest, 

 too much emphasis cannot be placed on the importance 

 of selecting for study material which each pupil can 

 see or hear or feel and can study for himself, which is 

 closely related to the every-day life of the boys and 

 girls, and in which they are or can be interested. Re- 

 membering also that as children grow older they are 

 not so directly dependent on sense-perception, and that 

 they gain greater power to apply what has been learned 

 through the senses, to combine and generalize, or to 

 think and reason, we see the necessity of leaving until 

 the later years those subjects, such as physics, which 

 require considerable reasoning power. 



The study of material, of plants, animals, and min- 

 erals, is, in general, the more concrete. They appeal 

 directly to the senses. The baby can study a bud or 

 a cat ; he can do nothing with heat. Force studied in 

 physics and chemistry is more abstract. It appeals to 

 the senses indirectly through its effects. Little chil- 

 dren cannot really study forces such as gravitation or 

 heat, nor gain any real conception of them. Even adults 



