General Aims of Nature Study 57 



be trained to discriminate between fact and fiction; 

 between the real in nature and that which is the result 

 of his own emotional states. 



No rule can be laid down. The teacher will find 

 ample opportunity here to exercise a wise judgment 

 in striking a happy mean. The safest way is, doubtless, 

 to confine the pupil to the facts during the first lessons 

 on any one topic, and finally, after the subject is well 

 understood as to the facts, to express whatever of 

 sentiment and poetry it may suggest to him. We 

 have a right to express our appreciation of a thing 

 only after we know that thing. Let appreciation be 

 based, not on our own selfish, indolent states, but on 

 the merit which deeper insight reveals. 



Oral expression, speech, is most convenient in the 

 preliminary development of a subject. It saves time 

 when the object is to correct errors or to suggest ways 

 of avoiding them. Drawing and the final written 

 work are better deferred till the subject is well under- 

 stood. The study of unfamiliar things involves the 

 discovery of new facts and new relations of facts. 

 New ideas of facts and their relations require new 

 terms to express them. A need for such new terms 

 will be felt by the pupil when he begins to relate his 

 observations. The need being felt, there is evidence 

 that the pupil has the idea, the name or symbol for 

 which should then be supplied by the teacher. This 

 is the natural way of acquiring a vocabulary. When 

 the word is supplied in this way when needed, it means 

 something, and will be properly used later in written 

 work. 



Hence nature study is the only sensible means of 

 teaching language in its rudiments. Pupils as a rule 

 find no great difficulty with scientific terms if supplied 

 when needed. They often, in fact, enjoy a difficult 

 scientific term, and seem to master it as easily as a 

 simpler one. 



