3 mosses of Scotland and collections of 



abounds in beautiful drawings, which 

 specimens. It frequently happens that 

 is illustrated. 



NATURE-STUDY AS AN EDUCATION.* 

 Nature-study has been exploited during the last score of years 

 in this country in various ways. It began here as an off-shoot of 

 the so-called object-lessons introduced by Dr. Sheldon into the 

 Oswego Normal School, and received further stimulus in the 

 Cook County Normal School under Dr. Francis Parker and Mr. 

 W. S. Jackman, who attempted the first formulation of nature- 

 study as a distinct subject, and prepared a text-book of numer- 

 ous isolated suggestions for the teacher, these suggestions 

 ranging through many subjects and sometimes going far afield. 

 And yet the key-note of the book as stated by the author rings 

 out strong and true : " Let us place the children in the woods 

 and fields that they may study nature at work." 



About the same time (1889), Mr. Arthur C. Boyden of the 

 Bridgewater Normal School championed the new idea, began 

 teaching in the state institutes of Massachusetts, and got out a 

 pamphlet on the "Study of Trees in Plymouth County" ; one 

 of the first of a long series of fluttering nature-study leaflets by 

 men and women who, knowing much or little or nothing at all 

 about the subject, have found the theme a good one to write 

 upon. At the same time, also, a department ot nature-study was 

 organized in the Summer School of Cottage City under the name 

 of elementary science, and in the latter part of the eighties, na- 

 ture-study under the name of elementary science was receiving 

 consideration in many schools in several states. 



From 1890 to 1895, exhibits of nature-work were common in 

 cities, the display at the World's Fair in Chicago being the cul- 

 mination of this phase of development. 



