THE 



NATURE STUDY COURSE. 



Object LeSSOnS. — Nature Study is the direct successor of 

 what for a half-century has passed under the name of Object 

 Lessons. The Object Lesson, except when misunderstood to 

 mean information about objects, exercised the senses, but 

 stopped short of educative observation. Sense- training is not 

 very important as an end in itself ; it takes on importance as 

 a means to the training of the mind and body. The Object 

 Lesson was usually little more than a merely perceptual 

 exercise. It consisted mainly of looking and naming ; it 

 began anywhere and led to no particular place. It failed to 

 train the child to become a self-active, reasoning investigator. 



Comenius, in the " Didactica Magna" argued that "people 

 must be taught to get their knowledge, as far as possible, 

 not from books but from earth and sky." A century 

 and-a-half later Rousseau took " Emile " to nature but left 

 him there. His disciple, Pestalozzi, realized and taught that 

 the teacher's art was needed to guide " Emile " to see and 

 understand nature. Then it was that the Object Lesson, as- a 

 subject and means of instruction, found its way into school 

 curricula. Froebel followed and taught the child how to 

 act upon nature and through observation, action and re-action, 

 to obtain development, freedom, possession of his powers and 

 enjoyment. The Froebelian spirit breathed into the Object 

 Lesson vitalized it, and started it to grow as though a brush 

 heap had been transformed into a beautiful, living tree. The 

 change was so great that the lesson received a new name. It 



was called Nature Study. 



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