192 Third Conference 



with the Board of Education, first, so to modify the 

 scheme of the training colleges that more time be 

 given to method, and that effort be made to turn out 

 true educators, not merely teachers just in advance 

 of their pupils, of some of whom it may be, and has 

 been said, that the teachers " learn the lesson and the 

 pupils hear them say it", and whose power of teaching 

 gets no further; and, secondly, to insist that Nature- 

 study, being a unit of first-class educational value for 

 training the mind, and also of value as putting the 

 young mind in possession of elementary information 

 on matters underlying his rural pursuits, as well 

 as all his surroundings, set forth in the book of 

 Nature, his constant companion, deserves a prominent 

 place in the curriculum of all schools. Believing, 

 further, that in whatever direction his work in life 

 may lie, be his rural pursuits what they may, the 

 student of Nature will never regret an early training 

 that has furnished him with better eyes than his 

 fellows. 



THE ATTITUDE OF THE TEACHER IN 

 NATURE-STUDY WORK 



By Mr. A. D. HALL, Director of the Rothamsted 

 Experimental Station 



The term Nature-study is both clumsy and in- 

 definite ; teachers, however, feel in a general way what 

 is comprised under the name. It is my object to put 

 forward certain suggestions as to the spirit in which 

 the teacher should approach the work, because on 

 that alone depends the value of the subject. A pre- 



