36 The Nature-Study Exhibition 



dren (girls and boys) are encouraged to make as much as possible of the 

 apparatus required for their Nature-study." 



The time-table of the Ruskin School Home, Heacham- 

 on-Sea, showed that two-thirds of the work of a secondary 

 school could be carried on out-of-doors. The Nature- 

 study work of this successful experiment in education 

 consists of " plant lore and rock lore and star lore, as far as 

 possible gained at first hand, and opening eyes to the beauty 

 and wonder of the worlds ". The master sets himself " to 

 tell the children as little as possible^ to make them see and 

 think as much as possible^ and to supply them with a key 

 to all future problems, for to train children to reason in one 

 subject is to train them to reason in all". 



A few further details of the methods adopted in this school 

 may be added here, and are as follows : — 



** First, then, plant-study (not botany as commonly understood) is 

 depended upon for training in habits of keenest observation, carefuUest 

 recording, and closest reasoning. Plant-study in field and garden, 

 together with the study of all the complex web of life inwoven with that 

 of plants ; the flower and insect, insect and bird, bird and ' beast ', all 

 to be studied on the spot with spade or note- and sketch-book in hand. 

 Each child, if it so desire, may have its own little garden plot. 



"Similarly, every child is encouraged, within reasonable limits, to 

 keep and care lovingly for pets ; and the study of these, in the marvel- 

 lous adaptation of each organism to its environment, is co-related with 

 what we can learn of ourselves in the study of our own bodies and of 

 the wild life of the fields. 



"It may be asked here: * Is it possible to give children a good 

 mental training in plant-study and the life of the fields?' It may be 

 answered, that the gentle old Henslow trained the children of his 

 village school thus, to such habits of order and neatness, and such acute 

 powers of observation and reasoning, that they were sought far beyond 

 the limits of his county, the girls as domestic helps, the lx)ys for re- 

 sponsible situations of all kinds ; and further, that plant-study is only 

 the portal, and that the most healthy and natural, to the treasure-house 

 of all the lore of all the ages. 



"The plants lead downward into the study of the rocks (and every 

 mine and quarry and building near yields its aid in this direction), and 



