56 
THE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF 
NATURE-STUDY.* 
In the years since the introduction of nature-study into our 
schools there has been a series of conflicts sometimes alarming, 
sometimes petty, and not infrequently absurd between the scien- 
tist and the naturalist. here has been experiment and ae 
and until the subject crystallizes out from a mass of heteroge- 
neous material, there will continue to be experiment and criticism. 
The selection of subject-matter from the vast amount of avail- 
able material, and the formulation of this subject-matter into 
courses adapted to the different grades in our schools is still in 
the early stages of the evolutionary process. 
The great trend of the lines of nature-study to-day is towards 
the concrete, the practical, the thing that is of use to the child. 
This is true not only of nature-study, but of all departments of 
education. ‘‘ How does this bear upon the life of the child?” 
is the question of the hour as it has never been before. It is not 
sufficient that a thing in itself is interesting or curious, and pleases 
and amuses the child; we must look for that which is perhaps 
equally interesting ne pleasing, and has the added quality of 
touching the child’s life more or jess directl 
mple, we no longer make a study of insects as insects, 
We no longer begin, ‘‘ Now, children, here is a June-bug ; let us 
learn all we can about him; he is a good example of the beetle; 
and when we have learned about the June-bug, we shall know a 
good deal about the whole class of beetles.’’ Perhaps the last 
point to be made was that in the larval form the June-bug is a 
source of trouble in our lawns. Now we start at the other end. 
Here is a patch of dying grass on this beautiful lawn; we dig 
into the earth and find fat white grubs at work upon the roots 
of the grass; we take them into the schoolroom and keep them 
in a jar of earth; we dig them up from time to time and watch 
the change that is taking place; by and by the mature insect 
appears, and eager hands and eyes are ready to make the most 
of him 
* Paper read at the Conference of the Scientific Staff and Students, December 2 
1908, 
