NOVBMBKE 20, 1896,] 



SGLENGE. 



741 



claimed that it has an effect of its own, not 

 to be duplicated by any other subject. It 

 is this specific effect of nature study that 

 we are especially interested in discovering. 

 The argument for nature study as a means 

 of general training is based upon the claim 

 that the subject-matter appeals more 

 strongly to the interest of the young than 

 almost any other that can be presented. 

 The enormous momentum gained by inter- 

 est is too well known to need discussion. 

 That objects in nature, especially living ob- 

 jects, arouse the most lively interest in chil- 

 dren, is the common testimony of all those 

 who deal with children. It seems logical 

 to take advantage of this interest in any 

 intellectual training, and to press the sub- 

 ject matter to all its possible applications, 

 thus reinforcing or even supplanting work 

 technically belonging to other departments. 

 The possible applications of nature study 

 to numbers, to language, to drawing, are 

 well known and extensively utilized. These 

 propositions fail if interest in subject-mat- 

 ter is of no advantage in intellectual train- 

 ing, or if natural objects are not of large 

 interest to children. My claim is that 

 nature is not merely of large interest, but 

 of supreme interest to children ; that it sup- 

 plies the most natural material by means of 

 which the child may be developed intellect- 

 ually in various directions ; and that failure 

 to use it is to neglect a broad highway and to 

 attempt an advance through the thickets. 

 I know that some will claim that power is 

 developed by the resistance of the thickets ; 

 but it should be remembered that precisely 

 the same power will be developed by cover- 

 ing a longer distance upon the highway, 

 especially when the latter has the impetus 

 of consent. The law of the conservation of 

 energy has its application in things intel- 

 lectual as well as in things physical. The 

 greater the resistance, the less the distance, 

 and vice versa. The method all depends 

 upon whether we are seeking for resistance 



or distance; in both cases the resulting 

 power will remain the same. I have never 

 ceased to wonder at the systems of educa- 

 tion which base their training, in effect, 

 upon the proposition that the most natural 

 impulses are to be repressed ; that natural 

 tastes are to be set aside for those artificially 

 stimulated ; that the great open book of ob- 

 jective nature is to be closed, and conven- 

 tional subjective matter presented. From 

 my own standpoint, this is intellectual dis- 

 tortion, as much as are the heads of Flat- 

 head Indians or the feet of Chinese women 

 physical distortions. The subject is dif&- 

 cult to present in its true light, for we are 

 still under the domination of a conventional 

 education, which has worked out its results 

 for centuries, and its good results are over- 

 whelmingly in evidence because they are 

 our only results. Now that the republican 

 idea of larger rights for all subjects is persis- 

 tently intruding itself, the old aristocracy 

 needs most careful scrutiny. It has cer- 

 tainly done the best it could ; but this is 

 no reason why some other form of organiza- 

 tion may not do better. The human mind 

 develops in spite of subjects and teachers ; 

 but our purpose should be to remove all 

 possible obstructions. It has been an an- 

 nual experience of mine for many years to 

 come in contact with the product of primary 

 and secondary schools from which nature 

 study has been rigidly excluded, and it 

 must be confessed that the 'all round' 

 training claimed has resulted in the nar- 

 rowest conceivable intellectual product. 

 The evils of early specialization are no 

 where so apparent as in the schools which 

 prepare for college. It is true that many 

 colleges demand this specialization for en- 

 trance, continue it in their own courses, 

 and then deny an adequate representation 

 of nature study upon the ground that this 

 means specialization. The tentacles of in- 

 quiry which the child naturally reaches out 

 to nature become insensitive through dis- 



