Canon Steward's Address 253 



in himself and his pupils whatever is un- 

 original, superficial, perfunctory, and unreal. 

 (8) I should like to add a word on correlation, and 

 to emphasize the maxim at the head of the 

 card in the course issued by the authorities 

 in Philadelphia. It is, "correlation for the 

 sake of correlation should be avoided"- 

 I feel strongly that correlation can be, and 

 is, much exaggerated. I confess to that 

 feeling when the legs of the bee and spider 

 are dragged in to teach simple addition, and 

 forms of plant or animal are used as pegs 

 on which to hang an elementary Euclid 

 lesson, and even in the sometimes unnatural 

 imitating movements in the Froebelian 

 games. 



Now, how are we to help, in the direction of Nature- 

 study, that vast army of teachers, running into hun- 

 dreds of thousands, in elementary and secondary 

 schools } 



It is obvious that for all teachers, of every grade 

 and kind, the same great psychological principles and 

 truths apply. Realizing gradually that the " maxima 

 reverentia'' is due to the children, the world looks 

 forward to the day when every teacher of the future 

 will go through a course of training in theoretic and 

 practical pedagogy. The trend of opinion seems now 

 to be towards regarding Nature and natural objects 

 as the most direct, natural, easy avenue to the child 

 mind and child heart. We therefore hail the recently 

 issued circular of the Board of Education, which 

 makes simple natural science — Nature-study — an 



