Sir Joshua Fitch's Address 263 



a delight! I venture to think that the teacher's aim 

 must be to be the child's "guide, philosopher, and 

 friend ", the child's pedagogue, and Nature s poet 

 and prophet, and himself ever a patient, humble, and 

 devoted learner in the school of Nature's God. 



THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE-STUDY 

 ON THE SCHOOL AND ON THE 

 HOME LIFE. 



By sir JOSHUA FITCH 



Visitors to the exhibition and to the conferences 

 which have taken place in connection with it will 

 have already had their attention drawn to many- 

 different aspects of the subject of Nature-study — its 

 bearing on the national welfare in respect to industry, 

 to aesthetic culture, to educational method, and to the 

 conditions of healthy and intelligent life generally. 

 But I am struck with the value of this movement for 

 another reason. It promises to establish a new link 

 between the school and the home. Parents, especially 

 among the wage-earning classes, know very little, and 

 do not greatly concern themselves to know, about 

 what is being done in the school. The lessons taught 

 in the class-room are thought to be bookish and 

 recondite, and remote from the wants and the talk of 

 the family circle. Now, of all the subjects taught in 

 a good school there is none so likely to be the subject 

 of conversation and sympathy at home as those which 

 connect themselves with the study of natural history, 



