OF NATURE STUDY. — ij 



What Human Needs are Satisfied by the 



Study of Nature ? 



I. INHERITED TENDENCIES AND INSTINCTS 



Primeval man was entirely cle|)eiulent upon nature, and we are still dependent, 

 thouj;li often indiieetly. Hence we need to study nature to understand her laws 

 and thus preserve our lives. 



Since the life of" the individual is a repetition in miniature of the life of the 

 race, it is desirable that, in each stage, the environment should be an ideal copy 

 of that in which the race has made the most proj»'ress. Up till ten or twelve 

 years of ajje, the child's synipathies are with animate and inanimate nature, and 

 he should come in close touch with these. .At the ag'e of |)uberty interest in self 

 and in the opposite sex occupies the mental field, and an ideal social enviromiient 

 should be created for his proper development. 



Certain instincts of man are essential for the contiiuied existence of the race. 

 If these are not nourished at the proper time in a suitable environment, thev 

 perish. A siiituhle enviorniuent is o/if thut is similar to that in -d'liich the iustiiirt 

 was first developed. To improve the instinct the environment must become more 

 ideal. 



A squirrel in captivity, on a hard floor, will attempt to bury a nut, it will 

 scratch at the floor and leave the nut exposed. Under such conditions the 

 impulse to bury nuts soon dies and cannot thereafter he aroused. So it is in the 

 child. " In all [ledagojjy, the great thing is to strike the iron while hot, and to 

 seize the wave of the pupil's interest in each successive subject before its ebb has 

 come, so that knowledge may be got and habit of skill acquired — a headway of 

 interest, in short, secured, on which afterwards the individual may float. There 

 is a happy moment for fixing skill in drawing, for making boys collectors in 

 natural histor\', and piesently dissectors and botanists, then for initiating them 

 into tiie harmonies of mechanics and the wonders of phjsical and chemical law." 

 — James. 



Suppose the instinct were the fishing instinct, could it be aroused and 

 developed in the vitiated atmosphere of a schoolroom, conning over a description 

 of some fishing expedition of past ages ? No, of course not. At the age when 

 this instinct stirs the blood, the boy must bend a pin, attach it to a cotton string, 

 and with worm well set and properly mounted, go forth and sit in the glorious 

 spring sunshine on a dry bank, at the base of a foaming rapid, beside some semi- 

 trans|>arent stream, and feel ibe exultant tug, experience the delight of hauling 

 out the finny dweller of the stream, count up his store and even enjoy the weary 

 homeward trudge, happy in his knowledge of something accomplished. 



Why does the balmy spring air seem to invite me to far away streams and 

 sunny banks, to the sugar woods, the camp, and the swing-pole? Because the 



