ii4 Education through Nature 



The course of study should be followed when a 

 practicable one has been provided. But it must be 

 surbordinate to the interests of the pupils. Even a 

 desert affords considerable material for nature study. 

 It is very true that "all is in all." 



Where no course of study is provided for the school, 

 one can easily be made by taking the one presented 

 here as a model, merely inserting the appropriate 

 object, at the time when convenient in that particular 

 locality, and indicating the amount of work given to 

 it in each grade. 



How much work to be given to a subject in a par- 

 ticular grade, i.e., the thoroughness to be demanded, 

 must depend on the pupil's ability. The method 

 presented here requires no limit to be fixed by the 

 teacher, as the pupil's powers are allowed freedom of 

 action, and consequently determine the degree of 

 thoroughness that can be attained. With the work well 

 planned and the interest sustained such a method must 

 bring the work up to the highest capacity of the pupil. 



No written examination or uniform test for pro- 

 motion is contemplated according to this method. 

 The pupiPs written work, in step nine, is a fairly good 

 test of his ability and success, and, together with his 

 diligence and success in manipulation, may afford a 

 basis for grading. 



First Primary Method. When the pupil first enters 

 school the teacher's problem usually is (i) to keep 

 him busy, (2) to teach him to read and to express 

 himself in as many ways as possible. At this stage in 

 his school work, he cannot, of course, pursue nature 

 study as systematically as this method prescribes. 

 The principles underlying the method, however, are 

 the same here as in the more advanced grades; 

 namely, getting ideas through sensation and actual 

 experience, and then connecting these ideas with 

 symbols that may be expressed by (i) orally, (2) 



