APPENDIX 



Suggestions and Reviews 



As a consequence of the informal nature of this book, remarks 

 upon related topics are often widely separated. It may facilitate the 

 teacher's work if some of these topics are epitomized. 



1. SUGGESTIONS UPON PEDAGOGICAL METHODS 



A somewhat full discussion of the author's opinions respecting 

 the methods of presenting nature-study by means of plant-subjects, 

 is given in the Introduction. It is desired to emphasize the im- 

 portance of making nature -study objects the subjects of writing and 

 drawing iii schools in which composition and drawing are taught. 

 The first essential to the writing of compositions is that the pupil 

 have something to say which is drawn from experience and observa- 

 tion. Live and emphatic ideas are more important than drill in 

 modes of expression. Fill the pupil with his subject, and writing 

 comes easy, particularly if he is taught that good English demands 

 that he go no farther with his subject than to express what he 

 himself feels. The writing and the drawing should not be intended, 

 primarily, as examinations in the nature-study, but as regular exer- 

 cises in the customary work of composition and drawing. 



Teachers sometimes like to take up the plant as an entirety, 

 before discussing its parts. Familiar plants may be brought before 

 the class, and the different parts pointed out, — as stems, roots, leaves, 

 flowers. This is desirable with children, but its usefulness is com- 

 monly not great, except as a brief introduction to more serious ob- 

 servation. The pupil should be taught to see accurately and in 

 detail ; and it is always well to lead him to make suggestions as 

 to the meaning and uses of the features which he has seen. When 

 the pupil has obtained a clear idea of any part or member, — as of 



(445) 



