10 OUTLINE OF STATURE STUDY. 



IX. As AX Aid ix other School Work, 

 Writing, drawing, reading, literature, geography, arithmetic. 



X. As A Preparation for Practical Life. 



Helping the child to appreciate, understand, and control his physical 

 environment, his knowledge and mastery of which must largely deter- 

 mine his success or failure in life. 



WHY STUDY NATURE? 



The objects of the work, as indeed of all education, are: 



1. To interest the child in his surroundings, and arouse a sympathy 

 and love for nature. 



3. To cultivate his higher nature — spiritual, ethical, esthetic — and to 

 lead him to recognize God as the author of all things. 



3. To develop his powers of observation, expression, and thought. 



4. To form right habits. 



5. To give him a knowledge of his pliysical environment. 



THE COURSE OF STUDY. 



In arranging the work for the different years, and in selecting the 

 material and topics for study, we jAan : 



1. To arrange the work in two cycles, the first extending through 

 years one to four inclusive, the second through years five to nine inclusive. 



2. To study each topic in its relations, and not as an isolated thing. 



3. To adapt the work to the nature and needs of the children at differ- 

 ent ages — always the first essential. 



4. To adapt the work to the teacher, selecting that with which the 

 average educated teacher is believed to be most familiar. 



5. To relate and adapt the work to other school work as much as pos- 

 sible, that it may aid and correlate with other studies. 



6. To adajjt the work to the season. 



7. To adapt to the conditions and surroundings of the school, select- 

 ing the material and topics which can be studied in almost any school. 



8. To so select material and arrange the work that the course can be 

 abridged, or otherwise adapted to local conditions in other schools, with- 

 out destroying the logical order or sequence. 



ARRANGING THE WORK IN TWO CYCLES. 



The work (more especially that with plants and animals) is arranged 

 in two cycles. In the first cycle, covering the first four years, an attempt 

 is made to study all parts of the plant — root, stem, buds, leaves, flowei's, 

 and fruit — their growth, function, and general structure, and to get some 

 ideas of one or two examples of the common types of animals — their life 



