Suggestions and Course of Study 



larger? (16) Why does it disappear in winter? 

 (17) Why and whence does it return in spring? (18) 

 Why does it wither when plucked? (19) Why do 

 children like the dandelion? (20) Why do bees like 

 it? (21) Does the dandelion like water? (22) Where 

 do the little bright drops of water come from? (23) 

 How is the milky substance inside produced and of 

 what use is it? (24) Why does it close up in the 

 evening? (25) Why do people try to exterminate it? 



Such questions should lead the pupil to turn the 

 specimen over, so to speak, and view it in a new light 

 and from a different point of view. No answer need 

 be given to these questions. The pupil may be made 

 to understand that it is often prudent to say we do 

 not know, but that it is equally commendable to say 

 I'll try to find out. 



In the meantime, the teacher should use the sources 

 of information at her command, and should acquire 

 a knowledge of the generally accepted views on such 

 questions. Without this knowledge, the teacher lacks 

 perspective, and will be tied down to mere particulars 

 that in themselves are often worthless. It is such 

 great fundamental problems which stimulate research, 

 and which if properly understood may redeem nature 

 study from that routine of mere counting isolated and 

 meaningless details which doubtless provokes in many 

 well-disposed individuals the feeling that it is all a fad. 



3. COMPARISON. 



Step Three introduces the pupil to a new phase of 

 his work, that of comparing one object with another, 

 one fact with another fact. Isolated facts that do 

 not enter into a generalization are very much like 

 undigested food. They are a dead weight on the 

 memory so long as they do not enter into vital relation 

 with other facts. Mental power can be measured by 



