ON STUDIES MOST SUITABLE FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 503 



instilled into the minds of teachers are now recognised as applicable 

 and desirable in instruction relating to natural objects and phenomena ; 

 at the same time it is to be feared that the present tendency to substi- 

 tute in the higher standards of schools ' nature-study ' for a systematic, 

 logical, and progressive course of experimental physical science has grave 

 dangers. 



A very con.siderable amount of the ' object teaching ' in the lower 

 standards is of a highly artificial character, being in most cases educa- 

 tionally valueless. The disconnected series of lessons on subjects which 

 come most easily to the teacher's hand — for example, a table, a chair, a. 

 pen, a piece of chalk — which has become traditional, results in little more 

 than a 'laborious elucidation of the obvious.' It would seem to be 

 essential that a broad outline of a scheme of object-studies should be pre- 

 pared by the teacher for the year's work in advance and that these 

 .should be connected at least in short series. They should involve to 

 a large extent a real examination of individual objects by the pupils 

 themselves and should on no account be demonsti'ation lessons in which 

 the teacher holds a single specimen in his own hands. Good subjects 

 for such lessons are those connected with plant-life, for it is easy to obtain 

 sufficient objects at practically no cost. In the minority of cases where 

 the pupils can be taken out of doors under the charge of the teacher, real 

 nature-lessons can be given ; but in the majority, where the conditions of 

 school work render such outdoor lessons an impossibility, much useful 

 observation may be encouraged by mentioning the subject of the next 

 lesson several days beforehand and by suggesting a few simple and definite 

 inquiries. The lessons in the spring and summer months will be mainly 

 in connection with natural objects, but in the winter months it will be 

 difficult to obtain an adequate supply of objects for examination by the 

 pupils. This period might be usefully occupied in lessons introductory to 

 the work of the higher standards ; the nature and uses of water, air, and 

 food-materials form perhaps the most useful and interesting subjects. 

 The lessons on water should involve the consideration of its sources, the 

 work done by a stream, a river, and the sea, the change of water into ice 

 and steam, the evaporation of water, the presence of its vapour in the 

 atmosphere and the formation of cloud ; the dissolving properties of 

 water, its uses as a food and the large amount of water present in nearly 

 all food-materials. The lessons on air might include some very simple 

 experiments to show its reality and the pressure it exerts, leading to some 

 first ideas as to its weight when hot and cold, the effects of heat upon it 

 and its relation to burning and breathing. A few of the typical food- 

 stuffis, such as eggs, flour, and sugar, might also be considered, with the 

 object of showing that they are all combustible and contain carbon and 

 a considerable quantity of water. Such a course of illustrated lessons in 

 Standards II. and III. would do much to ease the difficulty of more 

 systematic work in higher standards. 



It is needless to say that the teacher who is to give the first ideas on 

 these subjects to young children must be at least as well qualified as 

 the teacher of more advanced work in the higher classes of the school. A 

 more systematic and connected treatment will commence about Standard 

 IV. and must of necessity begin with careful lessons in the measurement 

 of size and weight. 



In the endeavour to suggest a better correlation between instruction 

 in physical and biological science, it must not be assumed that the 



