CHAPTER XX 

 A GRADED COURSE OF NATURE-STUDY 



It requires some temerity to select and arrange the material 

 for a graded course in nature-study. The author recognizes 

 his inability to plan a course that will meet the wishes of 

 every teacher, and the impossibility of making any plan that 

 will stand for all time, even if that were desirable. Any 

 plan, however perfect to-day, might not fit to-morrow under 

 a changed curriculum or under the new conditions imposed 

 by the demands of a society having different views of educa- 

 tion from those held to-day. 



And yet the greatest evil in our present-day teaching of 

 nature-study is that it is unrelated and unorganized. It is 

 too scattering. A teacher in a certain grade will teach her 

 nature-study without reference to what has been taught in 

 previous grades or what is to come. As a result there is 

 much repetition, and there can be no proper development 

 of the study. There should be a continuity and a unity in 

 the different branches of nature-study, not only for a partic- 

 ular grade but for the whole course. For example, in botany 

 the work in the lower grades should serve as a foundation 

 for that in higher grades. The subject should be naturally 

 and logically developed throughout the course. A certain 

 number of common flowers or trees should be learned the 



