The Audubon Societies 317 



children be given an opportunity to develop civic pride by assuming some 

 responsibility in cleaning up waste ground, destroying insect pests, and attract- 

 ing birds to their homes ; that, everywhere, bird-study be correlated with school- 

 gardens, agriculture, horticulture, and economic entomology; that from the 

 schools, practical methods of dealing with nature be communicated to clubs 

 and granges; that in the schools, nature-study be taught in a systematic, 

 though spontaneous manner — not as a detached, isolated subject, but as a 

 comprehensive, interrelated branch, touching at many points most of the 

 studies now required in the ordinary grade curriculum. 



One of the main difficulties of this whole matter was carelessly put recently 

 by a thoughtful woman, who has children to educate, and who has served as 

 chairman of the school-committee in the town in which she lives. Referring 

 to the movement for introducing nature-study into the general school curric- 

 ulum, she remarked: "I haven't as much faith in this nature-study idea as 

 some people have." Now the reason for her lack of faith was not that nature- 

 study had been tried in the schools of her vicinity, but that she herself did 

 not have any clear idea of what nature-study means. 



The first and best service to render to your community is to help people 

 get a correct notion of the ground covered by this important study. Perhaps 

 no one has yet formulated an adequate definition of nature-study in words. 

 John James Audubon, Gilbert White, Henry Thoreau, John Burroughs, John 

 Muir, and many other true nature-lovers, have tried to tell us what the value 

 of first-hand nature-study really is. 



It might throw some light upon the question to re-read the story of Audu- 

 bon's life, and the observations of White and Thoreau in limited areas, as well 

 as the pleasant converse held with birds, flowers and mountains, set down in 

 the delightful annals of Burroughs and Muir. 



We deplore the fact that the children of to-day are wanting in the physical 

 vigor and native perception of their pioneer forefathers; that they lack initia- 

 tive and originality, brought up as they are in an atmosphere of mechanical 

 toys and devices, which distract their attention, but do little to sharpen their 

 wits. 



No better word can be said for nature-study than that it is a corrective for 

 these drawbacks of modern life. Taught properly, it trains the senses, particu- 

 larly sight and hearing, gives enjoyment, delights the mind, stimulating it to 

 meet unexpected situations responsively and effectively, and, best of all, it 

 employs the body in outdoor exercise which is at once healthful and absorbing. 



Even indoor nature-study is highly to be commended for the benefit which 

 schools and "shut-ins" of all kinds receive from it; for, strangely enough, our 

 modern ideas of education shut the child indoors, away from the great, beautiful 

 open, year in and year out, during two-thirds at least of the period of youth. 



One of the best demonstrations of the value of indoor nature-study may be 

 seen at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, when the 



