FORESTRY IN NATURE STUDY* 



By EDWIN R. JACKSON, Expert, Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



It is not so long ago that educators who advocated the 

 teaching of nature-study did so with timidity, and, perhaps, even 

 apology, fearing the criticism that inevitably is his who presumes 

 to add a new burden to the work of the public school teacher. 

 But today we speak of nature-study as something that has ar- 

 rived. It is no longer an experiment, but its status is well recog- 

 nized, and its benefits have become so apparent that now there 

 is seldom a voice raised in opposition to its advocacy. 



These facts illustrate the trend of modern education. The 

 significant tendencies of education today appear to be to teach 

 from things rather than from books ; to give the pupil a mastery 

 of useful facts, or what may be termed "the vocational aim" ; and 

 to appeal to the interests of the pupil rather than to aim at mental 

 discipline alone. In other words, the cry of the schoolmaster 

 today is for "practical education" — education not only practical 

 in its results, but practical in its methods. We are no longer con- 

 tent to read mere facts from books when the things upon which 

 these facts are based can be seen first-hand out-of-doors, or can 

 be brought before the student in the classroom by means of 

 specimens or pictures. We are no longer satisfied with mere 

 "drills" formerly so prevalent under the delusion that the grind 

 of keeping the mind busy along one line of thought will develop 

 keenness of perception and soundness of judgment along all lines. 

 We have come to realize that keenness of perception can best be 

 acquired by practice in observation and that the way to develop 

 judgment is to put the judgment to the test. So, in line with 

 these tendencies, we encourage the study of nature in the elemen- 

 tary grades of our schools. 



Dr. G. Stanley Hall has said, "To know nature and man is 

 the sum of earthly knowledge." It is the work of the nature- 

 study teacher to acquaint the pupil with secrets of nature ana 

 start him on the road to a mastery of his surroundings. The 

 field of nature-study is an exceedingly broad one. The various 

 phases of nature which invite research are almost limitless. 

 Among all these possibilities it becomes the duty of the teacher 

 to select for study those natural phenomena that are most worth 



*Address delivered at the Summer School of the University of 

 Virginia, June, 191 1. 



