THE MOTIVE S 



Geography proper furnishes many suggestions for nature 

 lessons and also provides the social motiye again. Numerous 

 topics of human interest referred to in this subject can be 

 explained by nature-study, and their bearing upon life 

 emphasized. The two subjects should be closely correlated. 



Manual training and domestic science, two other great 

 socializing studies of the school, are dependent upon nature- 

 study for many explanations of materials and methods. 

 There is a need to know the properties of the materials and 

 the way of making things. The value of nature-study in 

 this case is apparent. Here the knowledge is recognized 

 not as an end, but as a means to accomplish something to 

 be desired. Simple biology, chemistry, and physics, thus 

 correlated with manual training and domestic economy, are 

 seen to have much to do with human affairs. The simple 

 application of nature-study in this way in school leads to an 

 appreciation of the scientific basis of our sanitary and 

 economic methods of the home, school, and community, and 

 our complex industrial life generally. By such a correlation 

 these "making" subjects are enriched, and their intellectual 

 conten.t is increased. 



Nature-study has a satisfactory raison d'etre for the child, 

 if presented in the manner suggested. The school life in a 

 measure reflects the community life and enables him to 

 live in that community intelligently. 



But the child is interested in nature-study in another way. 

 The social interest is, perhaps, the dominant one; but anothei 

 more purely intellectual impulse prevails. This is the out- 

 come of curiosity, wonder — and is the complement of the 

 social interest in bringing him into right relationship with the 

 world. 



