NOTE TO THE TEACHER. 



IT is not the purpose of the author of this series to offer, 

 or even suggest, any rules for its use. If anything is 

 established in education, it is the fact that aside from 

 certain underlying principles and general directions, each 

 teacher must be a rule unto herself. The methods which 

 the author and her colleagues have found successful might 

 be entirely out of harmony with an equally good system in 

 some other city. It is to be presumed, however, that if this 

 series of nature -stories should be so fortunate as to be 

 received with favor by the educational public, it will occa- 

 sionally find its way into the hands of some teachers who 

 are not familiar with nature -work as developed in large 

 cities, and well-organized school systems. To these it may 

 be interesting and helpful to know just "how it has been 

 done " in the schools out of which these stories grew, and 

 in which they have been used. Indeed, by way of com- 

 parison and suggestion, it may also be of assistance to those 

 who have passed through the experimental stage and have 

 wrought out a system of their own. 



It has been the custom in the St. Paul public schools to 

 pursue the following plan : 



Materials. The teacher goes out with her pupils to 

 collect the materials referred to in the lessons, gathering 



5*1257 



