hadley] RELATION OF NATURE-STUDY TO CLUB WORK 57 



prospers. A life that does not conform to the laws of nature, 

 sickens and dies. 



Our poets, our artists are nature lovers. Many of them lived 

 their formative years close to nature. All the great prophets who 

 have given religions to the world have evolved their tenets in com- 

 munion with nature. 



The child who is taught the dignity of life, the sacredness and 

 beauty of sex, the instinct of mother love in the potato bug and the 

 cabbage worm, will have a moral background that children ignor- 

 ant of science will not have. Nature-Study and Boys' and Girls' 

 Club work are the only subjects by means of which the above facts 

 can be naturally developed. 



The average citizen has been too busy with his individual cares 

 to have his ear close enough to the ground to detect the menace of 

 Bolshevists, the Reds, the I. W. W.'s. How many meetings are 

 being held in your town? How much of this propaganda is being 

 accepted by your laboring class? 



An ignorant man, or a man who is too lazy to think for himself, 

 or a man with a certain amount of keenenss who has never had his 

 powers of observation and logical deductions developed, is a 

 menace to society and is a prey to these doctrines. 



It is sickening to be among such men and realize how distorted is 

 their point of view and what bold lies they will swallow as the 

 truth. 



Real Nature-Study, not sugar coated science, teaches the child 

 to observe. It teaches him to make his own deductions from his 

 own observations. It teaches him to think for himself and be 

 independent of manufactured propaganda. No other subject- 

 thru the eight grades develops this independence of thought. 



Go down town Saturday night in any small town or the cheaper 

 districts of any city. What would be the general description of 

 the American race as it throngs the sidewalks? 



They are sickly, pasty-faced, hollow chested, undersized, over 

 dressed specimens trundling a go-cart which contains as poor a 

 specimen of babyhood. 



Here again Nature-Study will assist in remedying the wrong. 

 The nature-study trips in search of specimens, the out-of-door life 

 in caring for plants and animals, day in and day out for six years 

 of school life is bound to leave its impression. It develops a love 

 for the out-of-doors and establishes the habit of seeking relaxation 



