78 Education through Nature 



nature study is to make reading possible to the pupil. 

 The order of development as it is now understood is 

 this: (i) object, (2) sensation, (3) idea, (4) word, (5) 

 language, (6) book. The text-book method reverses 

 this order. Considering the place which the text- 

 book has held throughout the ages, in all school work, 

 it is difficult to suppress the thought that education 

 in the past has been realized, in the primary schools, 

 in spite of their methods rather than by their aid. 



Yet this method is not without its advantages. It 

 enables a teacher, whose little learning is a dangerous 

 thing, to hear lessons in nature study. She may buy 

 a book on natural history and learn something about 

 what others know about the subject. 



There is a second way of using the text-book which 

 is not so objectionable. This consists in using the 

 text-book as supplementary to the objects themselves; 

 or else in assigning lessons in the book, but supple- 

 menting the latter by object study, so as to render 

 the meaning of the book intelligible. This, of course, 

 is possible only in the upper grades. Indeed some 

 eminent teachers and investigators insist on the use 

 of a text-book in lower classes. When accompanied 

 with object study the book adds definiteness to the 

 work and variety to the method. It also serves as a 

 program and as a course of study, enabling the teacher 

 to determine by tests just what the pupil has accom- 

 plished, and consequently what more can be done for 

 him. A judicious combination of the text-book and 

 laboratory method seems very desirable in the upper 

 grammar grades. 



5. THE LABORATORY METHOD is a general term 

 frequently used in contrast to the text-book method; 

 i. e., the study of the object itself. It refers to the fact 

 that the work is often done in a laboratory a place 

 often, but not necessarily, distinct from the recitation- 

 room, and supplied with material and apparatus for 



