NOTE 



IN bringing out Part II of "Eton Natur e- Study " and thereby com- 

 pleting our work, we would like to take the opportunity of thanking 

 not only the Press for the kindly notices that it has accorded to 

 Part I, but also those private correspondents who have given us 

 the benefit of their encouragement and friendly criticism. Space 

 forbids us to enter into any general discussion of the points raised, 

 but there is one to which we will very briefly refer. 



It has been said that however desirable Nature- Study may be for 

 young children, it is out of place at a public school, and that didactic 

 methods of teaching are alone possible for boys of thirteen and 

 fourteen years old where so few hours a week are devoted to the 

 acquisition of natural knowledge. If good results in writing answers 

 to questions set by external examiners are alone aimed at, this may 

 be quite true ; but we are not alone in thinking that often very little 

 real education may result from such methods. Furthermore we are 

 not prepared to deny that for a certain number of boys, teaching on 

 the lines that we have suggested cannot be adopted with any great 

 effect, but we believe that such boys belong to that class, which most 

 teachers will admit to exist, to whom any kind of intellectual occupa- 

 tion is repugnant. Again, while it is certain that Nature-Study is 

 best begun in early years, we cannot forget how often it is asserted 

 that unless the public schools lead the way, preparatory schools can- 

 not be expected to make any alterations in their methods or in 

 their time tables. Partly for this reason, and partly because our 

 experience tells us that the percentage of boys above alluded to, is 



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