4 Handbook of Nature-Study 



busy saying, "I do not know". But they never lost confidence in me or in 

 my knowledge; they simply gained respect for the vastness of the un- 

 known. 



The chief charm of nature-study would be taken away if it did not lead 

 us through the border-land of knowledge into the realm of the undiscovered. 

 Moreover, the teacher, in confessing her ignorance and at the same time 

 her interest in a subject, establishes between herself and her pupils a sense 

 of companionship which relieves the strain of discipline, and gives her a 

 new and intimate relation with her pupils which will surely prove a 

 potent element in her success. The best teacher is always one who is the 

 good comrade of her pupils. 



NATURE-STUDY, THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH 



HE old teacher is too likely to become didactic, dogmatic 

 and "bossy" if she does not constantly strive with herself. 

 Why? She has to be thus five days in the week and, 

 therefore, she is likely to be so seven. She knows arith- 

 metic, grammar and geography to their uttermost and 

 she is never allowed to forget that she knows them, 

 and finally her interests become limited to what she knows. 



After all, what is the chief sign of growing old? Is it not the feeling 

 that we know all there is to be known ? It is not years which make people 

 old; it is ruts, and a limitation of interests. When we no longer care 

 about anything except our own interests, we are then old, it matters not 

 whether our years be twenty or eighty. It is rejuvenation for the 

 teacher, thus growing old, to stand ignorant as a child in the presence of 

 one of the simplest of nature's miracles — the formation of a crystal, the 

 evolution of the butterfly from the caterpillar, the exquisite adjustment 

 of the silken lines in the spider's orb-web. I know how to "make magic" 

 for the teacher who is growing old. Let her go out with her jroungest 

 pupil and fall on her knees before the miracle of the blossoming violet and 

 say: "Dear Nature, I know naught of the wondrous life of these, your 

 smallest creatures. Teach me!" and she will suddenly find herself young. 



NATURE-STUDY AS A HELP IN SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 



^^UCH of the naughtiness in school is a result of the child's 

 gs lack of interest in his work, augmented by the physical 

 g£ inaction that results from an attempt to sit quietly. The 

 =: best teachers try to obviate both of these rather than to 

 punish because of them. Nature-study is an aid in both 

 respects, since it keeps the child interested and also gives him something 

 to do. 



In the nearest approach to an ideal school that I have ever seen, for 

 children of second grade, the pupils were allowed, as a reward of merit, to 

 visit the aquaria or the terrarium for periods of five minutes, which time 

 was given to the blissful observation of the fascinating prisoners. The 

 teacher also allowed the reading of stories about the plants and animals 

 under observation to be regarded as a reward of merit. As I entered the 

 schoolroom, there were eight or ten of the children at the windows watch- 

 ing eagerly what was happening to the creatures confined there in the 

 various cages. There was a mud aquarium for the frogs and salamanders, 



