Education through Nature 



evolution if their nervous plasticity covld be retained. 

 A wisely planned course in nature study and science, 

 by offering great variety of impressions, may maintain 

 the nervous plasticity, and thus prolong the period 

 of mental evolution of those who by nature are pre- 

 cocious; or, on the other hand, by supplying material 

 duly arranged for generalization, it may hasten the 

 intellectual development of those who are slow in 

 maturing. The teacher can hardly find any field in 

 all his work in which such excellent opportunities 

 offer themselves, not only for the exercise of the best 

 possible judgment, but also for obtaining remarkable 

 results. 



While it may be considered undesirable, therefore, 

 to hasten the process of generalization in young chil- 

 dren unduly, because it interferes with that plasticity 

 which is desirable in the child, and indeed necessary 

 to the highest intellectual attainments, it is very cer- 

 tain that the opposite course, that of overdoing obser- 

 vation to such an extent as to preclude generalization, 

 is equally undesirable and pernicious. The mere 

 "observer" is a character which is sometimes met 

 with even among naturalists so called. They are the 

 opposite extreme of the morbid introspective dreamer. 

 While the latter's eyes seem to be of no use to him, so 

 far as influencing his mental evolution is concerned 

 the former seems to be all eyes, with no brains back 

 of them to elaborate and assimilate the crude chaff 

 upon which his eyes constantly feast. The one is as 

 abnormal as the other, and it is difficult to say which 

 of the two excites our pity most. 



The teacher of nature study must seek to find the 

 golden mean between these two extremes. Remem- 

 ber that not all facts are worth remembering, and 

 that nature did well in enabling us to forget. Mere 

 observation of isolated facts may so load a mechanical 

 memory with rubbish as to interfere with the proper 



