150 HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 



the hearts of your companions ; or, to revert to 

 the other figure, you may introduce your com- 

 panions to your loving Mother Nature when you 

 know and love her so well yourself that you may in 

 the introduction transfer some of that knowledge 

 and affection to your friends. Therefore you 

 must " usually " go alone ; then when you go with 

 others you will have something genuine to transfer, 

 and not merely a perfunctory task to perform. 

 Nature should be so resourceful to every teacher 

 of nature study, that he could go and live with 

 her for days and weeks, until the longer he stayed 

 the longer he would like to stay. 



A superintendent of the schools in one of the 

 largest cities in New Jersey said to me: " I don't 

 know what is the trouble with nature study in our 

 schools. We have tried it, and the children don't 

 seem to be much interested in it. We devote 

 fifteen minutes a day regularly to it, and I often 

 have my doubts whether it is worth while to as- 

 sign even that small amount of time." 



I was puzzled. 



Later, in a conversation regarding other matters, 

 he jokingly referred to a visit which some of the 

 teachers had made in the Adirondacks. A club 

 went up there to stay for four weeks. They came 



