SELECTION AND SEQUENCE OF MATERIAL. 323 



themselves. In the lower grades also it is much easier 

 to correlate nature study with other school-work than 

 it is in the upper grades. 



In beginning work it will be found best to begin at 

 the beginning in all grades, except possibly the two 

 highest grades, to take up in all grades the most ele- 

 mentary work as outlined (in the next chapter) for the 

 lower grades, adapting it to the children. Thus good 

 foundations will be laid for future work. 



Statistics show that in American schools fifty per 

 cent of the children do not remain in school more than 

 four or five years. This must affect the arrangement 

 of matter. It seems better to arrange the work so that 

 those who thus leave shall have a broad general knowl- 

 edge of the whole field, rather than a detailed knowl- 

 edge, if this is possible for young children, of a small 

 part of the field. This is another reason for the ar- 

 rangement of the work in two cycles, referred to before, 

 and shown in the next chapter. 



Nature study differs from mature science in that itj 

 absolutely requires no laboratory except what nature 

 provides, and no apparatus except the seeing eye, the 

 hearing ear, the understanding heart, and the willing 

 hand. The lack of equipment affects very slightly the 

 selection of material, or the amount or character of 

 work which can be done. Teachers, thinking of col- 

 lege and high-school laboratories and equipment for 

 science work, are apt to feel that neither they nor their 

 pupils can study this or do that in nature work with- 



