The Museum and Nature Study in the 

 Public Schools 



The Committee on Studies and Text-Books of the Board 

 of Education has presented to the Board a report which 

 recommends drastic changes in the course of study for the 

 elementary schools. The most serious of these changes is 

 the recommendation that Nature Study be dropped from the 

 curriculum as a separate subject, and that it be taught partly 

 in connection with the English work and partly with the 

 geography work. 



The attitude of the American Museum of Natural History 

 on this question is set forth in a letter which Professor Henry 

 Fairfield Osborn, President of the American Museum, sent to 

 the Honorable Thomas W. Churchill, President of the Board 

 of Education, on February 6, 1913, of which the following is 

 an extract: 



As President of the American Museum of Natural 

 History, I am deeply interested in the subject of 

 Nature Study in the Public Schools, and I trust, in 

 connection with the changes which are now under 

 consideration by your Board, that the great progress 

 that has been made in our city in this important 

 division of study will not be arrested through any 

 reactionary advice or influence. 



As a careful student of education during the last 

 thirty-two years, and as a teacher in Princeton and 

 Columbia Universities for thirty years, I have watched 

 the development of nature study with great interest. 

 It arose, as you know, largely from the influence of 

 Agassiz in this country and of Huxley in England, 

 and fills a place in the scheme of education which it 

 is impossible to fill in any other way. 



The Trustees of this institution for years have 

 cooperated with the Board of Education, and a marked 

 copy of the Preliminary Report which I have just 

 made to the Trustees, together with a copy of our 

 special educational number of the Report issued last 



