Mr. Hall's Address 193 



vious speaker has been praising Nature-study because 

 it deals with facts ; I want to insist more on the oppor- 

 tunity it affords the teacher of deaHng with method 

 and ideas. 



The real object of this kind of teaching is to 

 develop the minds of the children along certain lines 

 which are untouched by book knowledge, and which 

 again are being repressed rather than encouraged by 

 the whole trend of modern highly-systematized life. 

 We have to remember that during the last few 

 generations we have been entering into a new world; 

 we have devised a system of education for the many 

 entirely on methods appropriate to the few. At 

 the same time, the growth of civilization, especially 

 of the town, has deprived the many of the natural 

 education they previously derived from things. The 

 sharp country child has a chance of developing 

 certain faculties and powers of which the merely 

 town-bred child has no conception. The latter gets 

 everything prepared for him; he is constantly being 

 told by parent or teacher; his routine, even his games, 

 are very much prepared for him. He becomes in a 

 sense blind, and loses the faculty of instinctive deduc- 

 tion from the things moving before his eyes. 



Let us consider the criticisms which have been 

 directed against our officers and men during the late 

 war. We are told that in the novel, first-principle kind 

 of fighting, such as we had to acquire, our men were 

 at a disadvantage; all their training, drill, and discip- 

 line was of less value than the readiness and " know- 

 ingness", which the country-bred Boer had picked up 

 from his surroundings. 



Now I advocate "Nature-study" as a means of 



