PREFACE IX 



efficient under conditions similar to those of the "average" 

 rural school. 



Part Four comprises certain chapters upon more general 

 topics; material which has been found serviceable for teachers 

 whose general science training has been slight or lacking 

 entirely. The aim is to provide a scientific point of view or 

 the materials and principles which are to be used in the work. 

 Here also are chapters on method in bird study and garden 

 management. It is a common observation that the usual 

 college or normal school courses in science do not adequately 

 prepare teachers of nature study. This appears to be due in 

 large part to the absence of the nature study method from these 

 courses; they are courses in " organized knowledge." Yet the 

 obligation to meet county superintendents' examinations or 

 university requirements for credit are obstacles at present to 

 much alteration of the character of these courses. To meet 

 this difficulty at Normal a course entitled Method in Nature 

 Study and Elementary Agriculture is made prerequisite to the 

 teaching of nature study in the training school and comes after 

 the conventional courses in the sciences. In this course these 

 chapters have been used as a text. In fact, this little book is 

 somewhat an outgrowth of that course. 



THE AUTHORS. 



