NATURE-STUDY ON THE PROGRAM 



By JOHN DEARNESS, Vice-Principal Normal School, London, Canada 



No other adverse criticism of nature-study is more frequently 

 heard that that it is disconnected, desultory, unsystematic. The 

 majority of those who urge this objection very probably confuse 

 nature-study with formal science and estimate its value by the 

 kind and amount of scientific knowledge acquired. The nature- 

 study teacher does well to keep Dr. L. H. Bailey's dictum 

 in mind — that when the teacher's attention is focused on sub- 

 ject-matter he is likely teaching science; when on the child, he 

 may be teaching nature-study. 



There is, however, ground for this criticism by those who 

 fully understand the nature and means of heuristic education, on 

 account of the irregular and spasmodic way in which the subject 

 is pursued in many schools. There are teachers who do not even 

 give it a place on the program (or time-table, as it is usually 

 called in Canada) for the alleged reason that it should be taken 

 at the irregular and often unanticipated times when occasions 

 for the lessons arise. The writer in this vein recommends by 

 way of illustration that the ordinary routine of lessons be inter- 

 rupted to teach one on the emerging cecropia, that when the light- 

 ning is flashing and the thunder booming is the time to teach a 

 lesson on the thunder storm, and so on. 



I have nothing to say against teaching extraordinary lessons 

 at extraordinary times, but there is abundant material for the 

 richest if not the most impressive nature lessons in the multitud- 

 inous commonplaces of nature and experience, and for these a 

 time may be assigned on the program. In the study of weather in 

 the December, 19 10, number of the Nature-Study Review, I ad- 

 vised that the first two to five minutes after the opening exercises 

 is a suitable time for reporting observations. The daily nature- 

 study lesson of from fifteen to twenty minutes may be proceeded 

 with then, but there are reasons in favor of giving it the last per- 

 iod before the noon recess. If at first twenty minutes cannot be 

 suitably filled, take fifteen or ten. A serious, systematic beginning 

 will open the field and deepen the interest until the temptation 

 will become strong to exceed the proposed twenty minutes. 



Some days a single topic will fill the time, but usually several 

 topics that are being carried along concurrently will come in for 

 some share of attention. Much of the observation and some of 



