The Teaching of Nature-Study 7 



THE LENGTH OF THE LESSON 



^HE nature-study lesson should be short and sharp and may 

 vary from ten minutes to a half hour in length. There 

 should be no dawdling; if it is an observation lesson, only 

 a few points should be noted and the meaning for the ob- 

 servations made clear. If an outline be suggested for 

 field observation, it should be given in an inspiring man- 

 ner which shall make each pupil anxious to see and read the truth for 

 himself. The nature story when properly read is never finished; it is 

 always at an interesting point, "continued in our next." 



The teacher may judge as to her own progress in nature-study by the 

 length of time she is glad to spend in reading from nature's book what is 

 therein written. As she progresses, she finds those hours spent in study- 

 ing nature speed faster, until a day thus spent seems but an hour. The 

 author can think of nothing she would so gladly do as to spend days and 

 months with the birds, bees and flowers with no obligation for telling 

 what she shotdd see. There is more than mere information in hours thus 

 spent. Lowell describes them well when he says : 



"Those old days when the balancing of a yellow butterfly o'er a thistle bloom 

 Was spiritual food and lodging for the whole afternoon." 



THE NATURE-STUDY LESSON ALWAYS NEW 



A nature-study lesson should not be repeated unless the pupils 

 demand it. It should be done so well the first time that there is no need 

 of repetition, because it has thus become a part of the child's conscious- 

 ness. The repetition of the same lesson in different grades was, to begin 

 with, a hopeless incubus upon nature-study. One disgusted boy declared, 

 "Darn germination ! I had it in the primary and last year and now I am 

 having it again. I know all about germination." The boy's attitude was 

 a just one; but if there had been revealed to him the meaning of germina- 

 tion, instead of the mere process, he would have realized that until he had 

 planted and observed every plant in the world he would not know all 

 about germination, because each seedling has its own interesting story. 

 The only excuse for repeating a nature-study lesson is in recalling it for 

 comparison and contrast with other lessons. The study of the violet will 

 naturally bring about a review of the pansy; the dandelion, of the sun- 

 flower; the horse, of the donkey; the butterfly, of the moth. 



NATURE-STUDY AND OBJECT LESSONS 



^HE object lesson method was introduced to drill the child 

 to see a thing accurately, not only as a whole, but in 

 detail and to describe accurately what he saw. A book 

 or a vase or some other object was held up before the class 

 for a moment and then removed; afterwards the pupils 

 described it as perfectly as possible. This is an excellent 

 exercise and the children usually enjoy it as if it were a 

 game. But if the teacher has in mind the same thought when she is giv- 

 ing the nature-study lesson, she has little comprehension of the meaning 

 of the latter and the pupils will have less. In nature-study, it is not de- 

 sirable that the child see all the details, but rather those details that have 

 something to do with the life of the creature studied; if he sees that the 



