Mr. Cowham's Address 279 



the right way the quality and variety of education 

 which England needs would be a very costly under- 

 taking, but the best national investment. Our 

 national habits of thought and life point to the con- 

 clusion that in the education of English children 

 the study of Nature should have an important place. 



SCHOOL RAMBLES AND THE TRAINING 

 OF TEACHERS 



By Mr. JOSEPH H. COWHAM, Westminster Training 

 College, S.W. 



I have been asked to state in brief outline the plan 

 adopted at the Westminster Training College for 

 preparing teachers to undertake the direction of school 

 excursions. I shall content myself with a simple 

 account of the school journey which I have planned 

 and carried out for many years with the students of 

 Westminster Training College. The aim of the 

 journey may be briefly stated to be an attempt to 

 connect the varying surface aspects of the London 

 area with the different geological formations as these 

 appear on the surface, and during the attempt to 

 secure valuable exercises in observation, imagination, 

 and reasoning. 



Before starting on the journey, it is necessary for 

 student teachers to have a thorough preparation by 

 means of the class-room lecture. Nature frequently 

 presents herself in so complex a form that unless a 

 certain interest has been aroused in a definite group 

 of phenomena, there is danger lest the observer in the 



