THE MISSION OF NATURE STUDY 13 



ested in it, the lack of knowledge obtained from sufficient 

 experience as to the most effective methods in using the 

 materials of nature study with children, the overcrowding 

 of classes, and a generally neutral attitude of parents with 

 reference to it. Thus its fulfillment of the place in the 

 educational programme which is sought for it means not 

 merely the mandatory introduction of the subject into 

 the grades, but also it means interesting adults, training 

 teachers, and conducting numerous experiments as to 

 methods and materials. The children may be expected 

 to give the largest response to an educational effort to 

 stimulate interest in nature, but also the appeal must be 

 made to adults who may not have silenced completely the 

 " call of the wild " or who may wish to hear it again. In 

 these pages, therefore, while the presentation is to those 

 who will teach nature study, the application is also to be 

 extended to all who influence children or who wish valu- 

 able contact with nature for themselves. 



A Local Study. — Nature study is necessarily restricted 

 in the materials it uses to those which any particular environ- 

 ment affords. Hence the details of nature study courses 

 must differ widely. The objects of nature which are of 

 especial interest in one community may be entirely lacking 

 in another. In one community the outdoor interest may 

 center in the forest, in another in the prairie, in another 

 in the fields and gardens, or in another in the seashore. 

 But amid these widely different details as to the materials 

 which nature study uses the same purpose runs and the 

 same results are to be obtained. It is this great variety in 

 the details that baffles many teachers who are more ac- 

 customed to follow directions than to formulate them. 



