HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 57 



broiling hot sun," as her mother expressed it in 

 a letter written without the child's knowledge, 

 showed nearly as much determination to find out 

 things, and the description was good enough for 

 second prize. The drawing like a huge letter S was 

 explained to be " the snake ;" two little rings like 

 miniature pennies, were explained to be " the 

 beetles." It was charming. 



I found some others nearly as good, which lost 

 high rating by only a slight deficiency of the right 

 spirit ; such letters were a prize in themselves, 

 but I regret that in numbers they were small. 

 The greater part showed too much correlation of 

 language-work and drawing. The nature study, 

 if indeed there had been any, had been buried out 

 of sight. Yet many accompanying letters from 

 parents and teachers showed that the importance 

 of nature study was appreciated. 



There is danger of correlating nature study until 

 it is^nnihilated. 



There is danger too of thinking that you have 

 some nature study and some drawing when you 

 really have none. 



" But do you mean to say, that we shall not 

 correlate nature study with language-work and 

 drawing ? " 



