64 HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 



patriotism and let patriotism grow out of our love 

 of nature study. For nature study, rightly under, 

 stood, is not a matter of bugs and snakes, but of 

 the highest and best patriotism. It is a matter 

 of the trees, the roads, the sunsets, the clouds, the 

 old homestead, the city home and its surround- 

 ings, although in the city there may not be much 

 that is attractive except the blue sky and the 

 stars. And here comes in the fighting part but 

 only secondarily. The naturalist — using the term 

 in its broadest sense — is your true patriot. The 

 naturalist so loves the hills, the valleys, the fields 

 that he would lay down his life for them, and his 

 brothers and sisters of dear Mother Nature. 



The native land and God. That sums it all. 

 Love of native land — nature study — brings our 

 thoughts and our life to a higher plane. 



And right here is another important part of a 

 child's education, his moral training, to be thor- 

 oughly correlated with and produced by nature 

 study. 



" The sunset is unlike anything underneath it ; 

 it wants men." You can never improve that child 

 by preaching words alone. Influence by example 

 and association. The story of the naughty boy 

 that came to some bad end, and of the goody- 



