462 KEPORTS OX THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



things and not as dead material. So too with physiography, the syllabus 

 should be illustrated by perpetual reference to the school district — • 

 indoors l)y experiments, out of doors by walks and excursions in tlic 

 neighbourhood. 



.3, Tlte Supply of Material. 



This must be abundant, in good condition, and sufficiently uniform in 

 character for class teaching. The last condition is not always fulfilled 

 when the children collect for themselves, and v/hen classes are many and 

 large the teacher may find the quantity required too heavy to collect 

 himself. Botanical material is not expensive when compared with the 

 apparatus or chemicals deemed reasonable for chemical laboratory work. 

 Education committees might arrange with nurserymen for wholesale 

 prices, and then ask teachers to order direct on special forms with suitable 

 limits for expenditure, e.g., not exceeding 1(/. per pupil per hour. The 

 Kyrle Society's action has been most welcome, and the Committees of 

 Public Parks can greatly assist. 



\. Onldoor Work. 



While plant life forms a very generally suitable indoor subject for 

 elementary schools, there should be a good deal of flexibility about the 

 nature of the accompanying outdoor work. With some teachers garden- 

 ing, with others field botany or geology, forms the accompaniment. The 

 teacher should be encouraged to develop a speciality according to his 

 own tastes and the advantages or restrictions of his locality. Thus for a 

 school among osier-beds the natural history of the willow is an admirable 

 subject. 



It is now within the power of all elementary teachers to take the 

 school out of doors for a lesson and to count it in the tiiue-table. 

 Inspectors are sympathetic, and it is frequently done. 



Every syllabus that includes the shadow of a stick at noon or the 

 nightly turning of the Great Bear about the Pole, prescribes topics which 

 it may be impossible to teach practically in lessons held at 2.30 in the 

 afternoon. But this is just the reason why the routine of school work 

 may suitably be broken to allow children to witness exceptional natural 

 phenomena — a great flood, a high tide, or an eclipse of the sun — 

 phenomena whose times of occurrence are not within our control. 



In schools which possess a garden much can be done by the children. 

 Simple experiments in assimilation, pollination, grafting, ttc, can be 

 tried. Where classification is studied, the making of order beds by the 

 children is a great assistance. When it is impossible to work in a garden 

 experiments may be carried on in window-boxes. 



Excursions should be made to lanes and fields at all times of the 

 year. Even in towns it is possible to study the branching of trees and 

 unfolding of buds and to become familiar with the aspects of different 

 trees in winter, spring, and summer. 



To give definiteness to outdoor work some questions to be answered 

 may be set before starting a walk, and answers to them written out 

 fterwai'ds. 



Is it not possible that some city teachers, anxious to gain in Nature 

 lore, would find that a few years spent in working at a country school 



