AUTHOKS' PEEFACE 



THE value and the importance of nature-study are now so widely 

 recognised that there is no need for us to dwell upon its interesting 

 history. At the same time, however, seeing that in the teaching 

 implied, we have to deal with a method and not with a subject, it 

 will be well to make the standpoint, as regards general education, 

 perfectly clear. In the first place it is now perhaps hardly necessary 

 to say that in this sense " nature-study " is not synonymous with 

 the " study of nature " or with " science," much less with any 

 particular branch of the latter. True it is that the materials for 

 nature-study are the sun and earth, plants and animals, even the 

 weather, but these may be taken almost at random, and the in- 

 formality of the pursuit is a pillar of its strength. 



Hence it follows that the teacher need be no specialist nor 

 qualified expert ; all that is required of him is that he shall have 

 broken away from the old didactic methods of imparting information, 

 and have the enthusiasm which arises from a love of nature. On the 

 other hand it is only fair to admit that in the hands of a trained 

 biologist, the work must greatly gain, provided that his methods of 

 teaching are such as will attain the ends in view. 



Nature-study rightly interpreted should provide for the personal 

 acquisition of knowledge and experience, during the early years of 

 life, in a way that is interesting and above all natural. It should 

 differ from the ordinary school task and savour in no way of the 

 " information lesson." 



The results of such teaching should be the capacity in after life of 

 adding to the mental equipment already obtained, and of judging how 

 to act under various conditions which must from time to time arise. 



