PART 1. 



THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY 



WHAT NATURE-STUDY IS 



ATURE-STUDY is, despite all discussions and perver- 

 sions, a study of nature; it consists of simple, truthful 

 observations that may, like beads on a string, finally be 

 threaded upon the understanding and thus held together 

 as a logical and harmonious whole. Therefore, the object 

 of the nature-study teacher should be to cultivate in the 



children powers of accurate observation and to build up within them, 



understanding. 



WHAT NATURE-STUDY SHOULD DO FOR THE CHILD 



.p_ IRST, but not most important, nature-study gives the 



child practical and helpful knowledge. It makes him 



familiar with nature's ways and forces, so that he is not 



so helpless in the presence of natural misfortune and 



_ disasters. 



Nature-study cultivates the child's imagination since there are so 

 many wonderful and true stories that he may read with his own eyes, 

 which affect his imagination as much as does fairy lore ; at the same time 

 nature-study cultivates in him a perception and a regard for what is true, 

 and the power to express it. All things seem possible in nature; yet this 

 seeming is always guarded by the eager quest of what is true. Perhaps, 

 half the falsehood in the world is due to lack of power to detect the truth 

 and to express it. Nature-study aids both in discernment and expression 

 of things as they are. 



Nature-study cultivates in the child a love of the beautiful; it brings 

 to him early a perception of color, form and music. He sees whatever 

 there is in his environment, whether it be the thunder-head piled up in the 

 western sky, or the golden flash of the oriole in the elm; whether it be the 

 purple of the shadows on the snow, or the azure glint on the wing of the 

 little butterfly. Also, what there is of sound, he hears; he reads the 

 music score of the bird orchestra, separating each part and knowing 

 which bird sings it. And the patter of the rain, the gurgle of the brook, 

 the sighing of the wind in the pine, he notes and loves and becomes en- 

 riched thereby. 



But, more than all, nature-study gives the child a sense of companion- 

 ship with life out of doors and an abiding love of nature ._ Let this latter 

 be the teacher's criterion for judging his or her work. If nature-study as 

 taught does not make the child love nature and the out-of-doors, then it 

 should cease. Let us not inflict permanent injury on the child by turning 

 him away from nature instead of toward it. However, if the love of 

 nature is in the teacher's heart, there is no danger; such a teacher, no 



