General Aims of Nature Study 49 



of most children in regard to this matter, and the posi- 

 tive untruthfulness of others, comes from inexperience, 

 on the one hand, and, on the other hand, from a train- 

 ing in which individual responsibility is eliminated 

 by a constant reliance on authority. 



The pupil should be made to test the truth or falsity 

 of his conduct, no less than the truth or falsity of his 

 statements. The love of truth for its own sake, and 

 aside from any utilitarian considerations, should be 

 so thoroughly ingrained in the nervous organization 

 of the pupil as to assume the character of an instinct. 

 This accomplished, he can hardly be cruel to any sen- 

 sitive thing or false to any man. 



Nature study, more than any other study of the 

 school, affords educational opportunities in this direc- 

 tion. Here lapses of memory, which are often respon- 

 sible for false statements, and, in the case of moral 

 maxims, a plea for insincere and immoral conduct, 

 may be corrected by careful examination of the object 

 about which memory has failed. Here, as in no other 

 study of the school, the pupil can be made to feel his 

 moral responsibility both with regard to his work 

 and his utterances. He can be made to feel that 

 truth and nothing but the truth is wanted, and that 

 all carelessness in observation and statement, all 

 slovenliness in his work, is a violation of the moral 

 law, and is detrimental to his reputation and standing 

 in the school. 



He can be made to feel, also, that strict adherence 

 to duty and to truth requires constant vigilance on 

 his part; that truth can be attained and adhered to 

 only by systematic effort; that mistakes and error 

 creep in whenever he fails to properly attend to the 

 minor details of his work, and when he shirks his 

 duty in doing the work as the teacher has suggested. 

 At every point he can be made to see that a falsehood 

 or an incorrect statement vitiates his whole work. 



