56 Education through Nature 



from the external . world. These ideas are not spon- 

 taneous growths in the mind, nor are they intuitive. 

 They are the results of experience, and should derive 

 their meaning from that experience. Expression in 

 nature study should be conditioned by outward phe- 

 nomena. Not mere talk, but talk which means some- 

 thing; not merely ideas, but ideas corresponding to 

 realities, rather than subjective states, should be sought 

 in nature study. If this correspondence of the idea 

 with outward phenomena is lacking, its expression had 

 better be reserved for the playground. 



There is an educational value, also, in the power of 

 inhibition, the suppression of irrational and erroneous 

 ideas. In fact, the more critical we become, the more 

 do we hesitate to express an idea the absolute truth 

 of which is doubted. Culture is characterized, often, 

 by scrupulous care in expression, whether it be ex- 

 pression by oral or written language, or that expression 

 which reveals itself as conduct and personal appear- 

 ance. Mental power may often reveal itself in silence; 

 and education and culture reduces meaningless ex- 

 pression to a minimum. 



Used as an educational means, rather than as a 

 means for pastime, nature study should promote 

 that scrupulous care in the choice of words which 

 exactly express the idea. Furthermore, it should tend 

 to that accurate and systematic thinking which forbids 

 expression when there is nothing to express. The 

 ability to discriminate between those ideas which con- 

 form and those which do not conform to the exter- 

 nal reality is not so common, even among adults, as 

 might be supposed, considering that this power is the 

 basis of common sense. 



This does not imply that the emotional nature of 

 the pupil should be suppressed, nor that the play of the 

 imagination, so natural to childhood, should be entirely 

 discouraged. It means, simply, that the pupil should 



