THE PRINCIPLES OF NATURE STUDY 51 



pupils must not be made to search long or to obtain poor 

 results. Lack of definiteness results in work that is con- 

 fusing, discouraging, and disastrous. 



It is just here that the teacher's greatest skill is called 

 for. To give enough suggestion to make observation 

 definite and not to give enough to interfere with independ- 

 ence is sailing between Scylla and Charybdis. Either 

 extreme is disastrous, and the decision as to just what to 

 suggest and what to leave to suggest itself must always be 

 dependent upon the immediate circumstances both as to 

 material and as to pupils. 



Sketching. — In connection with the observational work 

 there is no question as to the value of sketching; it can 

 hardly be called drawing. The purpose is not to make a 

 good sketch, but to insure accurate observation, and it is 

 the best teaching device known to secure this result. 

 Usually no one sees an object with exactness or fastens it in 

 his memory clearly until he attempts to reproduce it. Any 

 artistic skill possessed by a pupil is apt to be a danger, for 

 the tendency then is to make a picture rather than to record 

 the facts. And yet the exercise incidentally teaches one to 

 make lines represent facts with exactness. The peda- 

 gogical value of sketching in nature study, however, lies 

 in the effort to reproduce rather than in the accurate re- 

 production. A pupil whose sketch does not represent the 

 object, and who recognizes the fact, may have received as 

 much benefit from the exercise as the pupil who sketches 

 better. This is important to remember in criticising and 

 in grading pupils. In using such a device, the temptation 

 is to make the device the end in itself rather than its effect 

 upon the pupils. Sketching should measure the thought 



