CHAPTER V. THE PEDAGOGY OF NATURE 5TUDY. 



"The education of the child must accord both in mode and arrangement with the education of mankind 

 as considered historically; or, in other words, the genesis of knowledge in the individual must follow the 

 same course as the genesis of knowledge in the race." Spencer. 



As a result of the studies thus far pursued it is expected that the teacher will take a 

 keener interest in the observation and study of children. This will lead to a better under- 

 standing of the individual child and the establishment of more sympathetic relations between 

 him and the teacher. The most favorable conditions for his development will be at once 

 apparent and teachers, as a body and as individuals, can do much in the way of improving 

 the conditions under which young children struggle. With a clear understanding of the 

 biogenetic law the teacher is no longer an automaton, but capable of independent thought and 

 judgment concerning the materials of the course of study and methods of presentation. She 

 should be able to diagnose defects and prescribe remedies. 



A. Purposes of Nature Study. One of the most sweeping and most satisfactory 

 utterances concerning the purpose of education in general, is that it is a process by which the 

 individual is adjusted to his environment. This applies to all times, to all climes and to animals 

 as well as man. In the adjustment of the race to its present civili/ed environment Nature 

 knowledge has had a most important share, as has been outlined in chapter III. Considered 

 in its broadest sense it has had most to do with the development of the race brain and from it 

 as a center there was developed those subjects of the elementary school which are of richest 

 content (geography, science, literature and history)* the thought subjects. From the Nature 

 studies in very large part, and from the above thought subjects as well, there was gradually 

 developed and perfected the expression subjects pantomime, oral expression, composition, 

 spelling, penmanship, reading, numbers, music, drawing, painting, modelling and making. 

 These forms of expression were not acquired independently of one another nor of the thought 

 subjects themselves. The idea came first, the desire to express it next and the form of 

 expression resulted. Primitive man did not learn to count until he had something that he 

 wanted very much to count, nor to draw until he had something in his mind that he much 

 desired to express in this way. All of the industries and occupations connected with the 

 home and the obtaining of food and clothing were developed gradually by the race in its 

 efforts to utilize Nature's materials and to secure better adjustment to the changing 

 environment. So far as the historical development of all the subjects of our elementary 

 schools is concerned thought subjects, expression work, manual training and domestic art 

 they have all had a Nature basis. It is desired to enumerate what the writer conceives to be 

 the claims of Nature study to a prominent position in the elementary schools of today. 



i. SENSE TRAINING. More strongly than is generally recognized today by those who 

 discuss the subject the writer believes in the disciplinary value of Nature Study. This he 

 believes to be of primary and fundamental importance. In a favorable environment the play 

 impulse will take care of the muscular development and the building up of the motor centers 

 of the brain, at the right time and in the right way. If left to himself, also in a favorable 

 environment, the natural impulse to use his senses will furnish the training necessary for the 

 development of his sense organs and the corresponding sense centers in the brain. When, 

 however, the child is imprisoned in the school-room for the choicest hours of the day and his 

 energies expended in activities entirely foreign to his nature, neither motor centers nor sense 

 centers can develop in harmony with the law of brain development. This might not be so 

 serious if it did not happen that upon these centers as a foundation are to be built up the 

 higher centers of the brain and its entire effectiveness as a tool of the mind seriously 

 impaired. The greatest possible amount of sense training should be secured in connection 

 with the Nature work, every special sense being called into requisition and, in addition, the 

 uscular sense, the temperature sense and the sense of direction. For each exercise in 



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