HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULt) BE TAUGHT 87 



all wrong for the schedules to make the teacher. 

 Keeping a diary may be a pleasant and profitable 

 outpouring and developing of one's best self ; the 

 diary may be a drudge-making master. So it is 

 with schedules. It is all in the way the teacher 

 uses them. This does not mean a compromise 

 with a thing of evil ; it means the right use of a 

 thing that in itself is essentially good. But it is 

 a thing so commonly misused that it most often 

 seems best to omit it entirely. "If thy right eye 

 offend thee, pluck it out." 



Perhaps my strong dislike for schedules in na- 

 ture study, amounting almost to repugnance, is due 

 not so much to anything intrinsically wrong in 

 having schedules as in misusing them. Your nature" 

 study must develop the spontaneity, individuality, 

 and interest of the child. It must wake him up and 

 lead him out as no other study can. So far as a 

 method or definite line of thought on your part 

 will aid in doing this, so far it is good. When 

 your method tends toward machine instructing, 

 then it is wholly bad. I have seen much of this 

 bad kind, hence, not because I love schedules of 

 the right kind less, but because I love the child 

 more, I have said " out with them." They are 

 dangerous unless used with extreme skill. 



