INSECTS. 125 



of these and other forms of his property. Scientifically, 

 esthetically and economically, insects lay strong claims upon 

 the attention of the student of nature. 



A little child studying a strange animal thinks first how 

 the animal's actions may affect himself. He asks — will it 

 bite 1 can it hurt me 1 then how he may affect it — can I catch 

 it ? how can I play with it ? third, how it can do things that 

 he can do — how does it eat? what food does it like ? how does 

 it rest and play 1 In short, the child is interested in it not 

 as a machine but in the work that it can do. Later he will 

 inquire how it does the work. His interest will carry him 

 along the steps of the vital activities, functions of organs and 

 structure, particularly if guided in comparing these features of 

 one animal with similar features of another animal. The 

 attitude of a Fourth Form pupil to an ordinary insect is that 

 of the First Grade pupil to a larger animal, such as the dog or 

 the cat. Here, as elsewhere, a hard and fast line cannot be 

 laid down ; knowing the child is necessary to determining the 

 material and method to use. 



There are events in the lives of some insects that excite 

 the wonder and may profitably engage the attention of young 

 children. Examples of these have been referred to, (p. 49). 

 If a house-fly or a clothes-moth were as large as a kitten it 

 would be an object of absorbing interest to every one, but 

 its minuteness unsuits it for Nature Study work in junior 

 classes. In general, public school pupils will reach the higher 

 forms before they can profitably enter on the serious study of 

 insects. One way not to begin, even there, is upon dead speci- 

 mens, whether fresh, or bottled in ill-smelling preservatives. 

 A teacher of a Second Reader class, who had taken science in 

 her senior-leaving course, describing her Nature Study work, 

 said " The high school teacher spared me enough pickled grass- 

 hoppers to go round the class. The children made drawings of 



