OF NATURE STUDY. —n 



to the mind which is to be acted upon by it. Hence the necessity of having 

 learned those modes of expression at the proper time, inasmuch as the majoritj* 

 of minds respond, adequately, only to the lower modes of expression. Our con- 

 stant aim as educationists should be to make our pupils independent of these 

 lower modes, not by ig-noringf them entirely as we have been doing, but by 

 arousing and developing them at the proper time. 



The subjects of study for this stage, therefore, will be those which emphasize 

 the social side of life, and which demand the exercise of the thought powers. 

 The constructive activities should be exercised throughout as the basis of 

 "remaking experience." Subjects whii-h require classification are essential, 

 such as botany, geography, zoology, grammar. The deductive sciences, arith- 

 metic and grammar, will cultivate judgment and reason ; history, properly taught, 

 will also exercise the reasoning. Any series of related facts will furnish material 

 for the thought powers ; hence, any of the above subjects will cultivate thought. 

 The attempt to explain the various phenomena of nature will bring into operation 

 all the thought-powers, hence, elementary science shotild be a subject of study 

 in this stage. 



The Subjects of Study. 



If we now make a list of the subjects oi' public school study and place op- 

 posite each study the mode or modes of expression usually associated therewith 

 in the class-room, we shall be able to see more clearly the relative value of each 

 subject in the three stages of education up to the age of sixteen. 



Subjects of Stidv Mode of Expression 



Arithmetic . . Diagrams and Speech 



Grammar ... " 



Literature . . Speech 



History . . . Speech 

 Geography . . All the modes 



Physiology . . . " 



Nature Study . . '* 



Though history and literature are usually associated with speech only, it is 

 quite easy to cultivate all the modes in these subjects. 



The remaining subjects, usually placed on a curriculum as subjects of study, 

 are not properly speaking subjects of study for public school pupils at all. There 

 is a scientific study of these modes of expression as they are related to the 

 regular branches of study, but such a study is not suitable for public school 

 pupils. These so-called subjects of study, reading, writing, drawing, and com- 

 position, are simplv modes of expression for thought. Having failed to recognize 

 the absolute necessity of making use of these modes of expression, except reading 

 and writing, we have thought it necessary to give them a distinct place in the 

 school curriculum as subjects of stud}'. By this act of placing them on the 

 curriculum so, the evil has been intensified, and we are compelled to witness 

 meaningless exercises in combining sentences, filling blank spaces, correcting false 

 syntax, changing the forms of sentences, the conjugation oi the verb, under 

 the name of composition. The composition has been accomplished already in 



