THE RETURN TO NATURE. 95 



have changed and we cannot escape a corresponding change in 

 the school. 



The school of former days was an unpretentious building, 

 located amid unattractive surroundings ; the furniture was un- 

 comfortable, the walls and ceilings were black and dingy, the 

 apparatus was inadequate. But oftentimes within this school 

 was found a teacher of mature years, possessed of scholarly 

 instincts, who advised and stimulated his pupils though he did 

 not become a companion and associate. Ian Maclaren's picture 

 of Dorasie in "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush" will for all time 

 stand as an ideal of the common school teacher. 



The schoolhouse of today is often an architectural feature of 

 the landscape, with attractive decorations and furnishings, and 

 adequate eqmpment in the way of blackboards, pictures, globes, 

 etc. In many instances the teachers are young, with an absence 

 of professional training, and too often do for the child that which 

 can only be of service when the child does it for himself. He 

 learns devices when he should be discovering and illustrating 

 truth-compelling principles. The strength of the school of yes- 

 terday was the ])ersonality of the teacher ; the school of today 

 is a well-articulated system that needs the energizing foi"ce of an 

 inspired teaching body to direct it unto right ends. The school 

 of tomorrow will subordinate external mechanism and elevate 

 personality to its rightful place as the regenerative, constructive 

 power for which the system exists. 



No phase of the return to nature is fraught with deeper mean- 

 ing than the introduction of nature study into the course of study 

 in our public schools. In its evolution it has passed through the 

 various stages of window boxes, school gardens, the utilization of 

 vacant lots for agricultural purposes, and at last the fundamental 

 idea of the school farm. In many places nature study adheres 

 to the school system as a plaster, to be taken on and off at will. 

 In one school it means birds, in another butterflies, in another 

 blossoms and groAving things. Why not include nature study in 

 the more comprehensive word, agriculture, and incorporate this 

 as an integral part of an elementary school training? A plant 

 should be studied in its relation to its surroundings and thus 

 bring out its uses and the general ])lan. This will lead to an 



