CHAPTER V 

 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 



One of the chief functions of nature-study is to cultivate 

 the power and the habit of observation. This is possible 

 only when there is something to observe. The object or thing 

 studied should be actually present before the children if 

 possible. If it is not, then the lesson is not an object lesson, 

 and as a lesson on nature it will lose much of its effectiveness. 

 If there is no illustrative material for the lesson there can be 

 no real perceptions of the thing. Reference can only be 

 made to the pupil's previous knowledge of, or experience 

 with, the object, and that may be vague, little, or nothing. 

 The reasoning based upon such ' facts will necessarily be 

 imaginative, and conclusions cannot be immediately tested 

 and verified. We very properly decry the old-fashioned 

 text-book method, pure and simple, in teaching physics and 

 geology, without experiments, specimens, and field observa- 

 tions. And yet many teachers attempt to give nature 

 lessons in this unscientific and unpedagogical way. This 

 is because they fail to realize that the illustrations are the 

 very foundation of the lesson, and not merely an entertaining 

 and ornamental feature. 



It is customary to teach nature-study by the development 

 method — the method of individual observation and reasoning 

 from the object before the pupils. Thus is seen the great 



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