20 NATURE STUDY AND AGRICULTURE 



some were free and expressive, including all the conspicuous 

 features, while others were stiff and conventional and 

 omitted several of the conspicuous features. The satis- 

 factory sketches were all by the six-year old pupils, while 

 all those made by the twelve-year old pupils were deemed 

 unsatisfactory. The latter had been mutilated for six 

 years so far as their power of independent observation was 

 concerned. They had become apparently so dependen 

 upon outside authority as represented by teachers and books 

 that when left alone they were at sea with neither chart 

 nor compass. This happened to be an extreme case, for 

 some pupils always retain their observing powers through 

 their own initiative, but it is a real illustration of a general 

 situation. 



Later Effects. This benumbing effect of the exclusively 

 conventional education upon the natural interest in ob- 

 servation appears to have much to do with the small pro- 

 portion of college students attracted to the laboratories. In 

 colleges where some laboratory work is required of all 

 students it is painful to see the complete inability of the 

 majority to do anything at all without the most explicit 

 and repeated directions, and this is naturally accompanied 

 by a strong feeling of aversion for such work. It is really 

 the worst kind of drudgery in such cases to develop any 

 semblance of the initiative with which most of them were 

 probably born. 



Familiar to the Child. Nature study is the most 

 familiar face that greets the child upon the threshold of 

 education. It, of all the subjects, should serve best to keep 

 the tentacles of inquiry at least functional during the neces- 

 sary, preliminary, conventional period of education. Per- 



