CHAPTER XI 



SUGGESTIONS FOR RURAL SCHOOLS WITH CROWDED 

 PROGRAMMES 



MANY rural teachers find lack of time one of the prin- 

 cipal obstacles to nature study work. The daily pro- 

 gramme is already full and local requirements may prevent 

 much alteration. But it is possible to do much profitable 

 work with nature subjects even under these conditions. 

 It need not involve encroachment upon time scheduled for 

 other work; instead it may prove a valuable adjunct for 

 other work, forming in some cases a center around which 

 other subjects may be grouped. It may be made to lend 

 new and attractive meaning to geography, to relate arith- 

 metic to actual needs in the lives of the children, and to 

 make possible a true interpretation of much of the reading. 

 It affords the best possible basis for written and oral ex- 

 pression. No other subject lends itself so readily to com- 

 position work. The pupils no longer look upon the writing 

 of compositions as drudgery, for they have something of 

 their own to write about, things they have seen and ob- 

 served and are interested in. 



Nearly every school has a short period each day for 

 general exercises, a time when the minds of all the pupils 

 are to be centered upon the same thing. A portion of this 

 period may be used two or three times each week for nature 



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