84 Education through Nature 



authority has said on the subject. It may occa- 

 sionally be used, also, but with caution, in the lower 

 grades. Demonstrations by the teacher in connec- 

 tion with the telling method partake of the character 

 of this confirmation method. 



X. Special Method of Teaching Nature Study. 



INTRODUCTION. It seems self-evident that all of 

 the methods considered in the previous section are 

 good when properly used; and, of course, bad when 

 improperly used. In most cases, the latter is true, 

 when any one of those methods is used exclusively. 

 Teachers are so apt to get a tardy idea now and then, 

 which seems like a revelation to them. In nine cases 

 out of ten it is only a belated view of the other side 

 of the mountain. 



In forming a method of our own that shall possess 

 a maximum of the valuable and a minimum of the 

 worthless in existing methods, we have to consider, 

 from all sides, three important factors: (a) the pupil, 

 (6) the object to be studied, and (c) the method. 



If our aim in nature study were merely to give the 

 pupil a knowledge of the object studied, we might 

 say that our task in forming a method is to so bring 

 the pupil and the object together as to develop in 

 the former an understanding of the latter. This 

 might, perhaps, answer in the case of advanced sci- 

 ence teaching, where it is virtually assumed to be 

 the sole aim; but it is a conception too narrow for 

 nature study. 



A subject in nature study has many sides, many 

 divisions, offering each its own problems, which 

 require their own specific method of treatment. Inas- 

 much as the pupil, too, has his many-sidedness, which 

 we have to keep in view, we shall do best if we succeed 

 in making such a combination of methods as the 

 laws of psychology would dictate on the one hand, 



