INTRODUCTION. 



By Edward F. Bigeww, A. M., Ph.D. 



Author of "How Nature Study Should Be Taught." 



There are as many definitions of nature study as there 

 are true naturalists, and as many methods of teaching it 

 as there are true teachers. All nature study teachers are 

 divided into groups, according to the text book which 

 they have studied, the normal school they attended, or 

 the schedule and instructions supplied by the school 

 superintendent. The individual method is always suc- 

 cessful ; others are usually only partly so. The essential 

 point is to encourage a love for nature that will lead to 

 a knowledge of it. That love and the knowledge which 

 is its outcome, will both be available in making life worth 

 living. 



Hence it is that a truly successful book of nature study, 

 must be either one of general principles as a help toward 

 the inspiration of the pupil, or one of material. The suc- 

 cessful book of methods in nature must always be un- 

 written in the heart and head of the teacher. It is a 

 thing to be felt, to be lived, to be evolved from one's own 

 individual method, rather than to be put into formal di- 

 dactical rules. 



The best of all such books can act only as a suggestion 

 to the teacher. I am one of those who believe that no 



