BIRD-STUDY FOR SCHOOLS 253 



unequipped for their environment in a material 

 world. I believe that we are now on the borders of 

 a tremendous upheaval in education. Within a few 

 years children will be allowed to understand better 

 the world in which they live. Even the city child 

 needs to know the natural world, as a source of im- 

 mense benefit and delight. In the country schools 

 emphasis will certainly be laid upon the various 

 phases of nature. 



One general phase of the new education will be to 

 train the faculty of observation by teaching and en- 

 couraging the young to investigate, to see things for 

 themselves, and to draw their own conclusions. The 

 training of the faculty of observation is one of the 

 great avenues to business success, which in these days 

 comes through original observation in seeing oppor- 

 tunities or possibilities, and working them out. This 

 element is important in every calling, whether it be 

 a '* profession,' 1 agriculture, manufacture, or com- 

 merce. And surely there is just as effective a means 

 of training the mind through science as by Latin 

 classics, useful as is the latter method. Every child 

 alive ought to have some training in nature-study. 

 Not only will it be a means of mental stimulus, but 

 a moral good in occupying attention with things that 

 are wholesome and worth while and a physical bene- 

 fit in imparting interest in outdoor things to entice the 

 young into the open. 



As a matter of fact, such work in the schools is 

 being quite generally begun. Many cities and towns 



