CHAPTER II 

 General Aims of Nature Study 



III. Introductory. 



The most general aim of nature study in schools is 

 to promote normal development. More particularly, 

 it aims to place the pupil amid such influences as 

 the laws of human society, on the one hand, and the 

 laws of nature, on the other, prescribe for the final 

 realization, in the pupil, of the higher ideals. Nature 

 study is not intended to supplant the ideals of culture. 

 It is intended to lay such a foundation in body and in 

 mind as shall render the realization of social ideals 

 possible. 



The achievements of the human race during past 

 ages are not to be ignored. Traces of these achieve- 

 ments are to be found in written records, sculpture, 

 painting, music, and in social and political institu- 

 tions. Nature study aims to lay that foundation in 

 the plastic mind and body that will enable the pupil 

 to appropriate these treasures of the past, and to add, 

 perhaps, something out of his own life to the sum of 

 human happiness, the sum of human knowledge, 

 and the sum of human achievement. Thus nature 

 study is not for dispensing with the art of reading, 

 but rather to make intelligent reading possible; not 

 to dispense with writing or arithmetic, but rather to 

 make these something more than mere imitation of 

 muscular movements and manipulation of symbols 

 with no content. In short, nature study is intended 



