observation much more rapidly and at the same time will have a much 

 keener interest in the work. It cannot be too strongly insisted that 

 about the surest way to defeat the object of nature work is to tell the 

 child what he is to see. Yet this is at the same time the teacher's most 

 common error. Unless the child is trained to observe and to rely upon 

 the observations thus made, nature work in the lower grades is 

 meaningless. 



The work should not be entirely formal or systematic, and indeed it 

 would be impossible to formulate any definite work either as to char- 

 acter or amount which should be assigned to the different grades. The- 

 children should be encouraged to observe those things that present 

 themselves and these will vary from day to day. At one time it may 

 be a flight of birds, at another a strange stone, at another a hail storm,- 

 or the opening of a flower, whatever it may be it should be used as 

 matter for comment and farther observation. The children should 

 be encouraged to extend their observations so as to include as wide a 

 range of objects and phenomena as is self-suggestive. Yet the work 

 should not be left to the chance material which may attract the child. 

 It would be well to suggest objects to observe from time to time, which 

 will serve for the basis of some work which all have had opportunity 

 to consider. Experience has shown also that such suggestions add 

 much to the interest of the work and serve to give a new purpose and 

 meaning to the fleld work or short excursions which should form a 

 part of nature work. It would perhaps be well to spend the half of 

 each exercise upon some previously suggested subject and the other 

 half as an observation club in which the pupils should be encoun-aged' 

 to report and question concerning things which may have attracted 

 their notice since the last exercise. Encourage this especially, even 

 though you are not familiar with the objects or phenomena, for you 

 are only an older pupil in nature work, and if you are sufficiently quiet 

 and observant you may learn much of nature through the keen eyes 

 of your pupils. 



The value of true nature work can scarcely be over-estimated. 

 Habits of accurate observation soon lead to a correct perception of relai- 

 tions, and this, when applied to the affairs of mature life, conditions 

 success. But in the period of school life it leads to correct notions 

 concerning the relations of living forms to each other, of their relation 

 to the inanimate world, of the influence of surroundings upon life 

 forms, in such a way as to make nature self-interpretative, and her 

 every manifestation educative. Such a knowledge of nature adds di- 

 rectly and largely not merely to the happiness but to the power of its 

 possessor. Knowing nature and her processes, knowing life and its 



