lo NATURE-STUDY 



keep up the spirit of personal observation and investigation. 

 If this is not done the child is too apt to be satisfied with mere 

 statements in books or by teachers, and too ready to accept 

 another's opinion as his own. A little healthy scepticism in 

 studying is a good thing, especially where one can find out 

 for himself the actual facts. Nature-study aims to keep alive 

 the inquiring spirit. 



It has been said that the child is a young savage. This is 

 true in several respects. Science tells us that an animal or 

 a plant in its physical development passes in general through 

 the stages through which the race to which it belongs has 

 passed in its development. For example, in the embryology 

 of the frog there is a stage that is like the fish — the tadpole 

 stage. Other facts prove the origin of frogs from fish-like 

 ancestors. Every frog repeats this fish-like stage. 



It has become an educational maxim that the mental 

 evolution of a child corresponds in a measure to the mental 

 evolution of the race to which he belongs. That is, the child 

 exhibits mental traits that were once characteristic of his 

 race when in the primitive state. In pedagogy we hear 

 this spoken of as the Culture Epoch Theory, and though it is 

 not fully worked out in its applications, this theory is already 

 useful in education. We cannot safely change the course 

 of nature in the development of mind or body. It is better 

 to take a suggestion from nature and to work with, rather 

 than against, her. 



A young child, though he may not show his savagery in 

 cruelty, nevertheless shows his interests to be chiefly in ob- 

 jective things — in people, human activities, and natural 

 objects. Children are proverbially inquisitive regarding 

 natural objects. In childhood are formed the attachments 



