NATURE IN THE SCHOOLS 



Inspiration, Visual Instruction, Observation, Learning 

 by henry fairfield osborn 



The Old Museum Idea was that of a sanctuary or refuge, a safe 

 deposit vault for curious, rare, or beautiful objects which otherwise 

 might be lost or destroyed; the child or the ignorant visitor was 

 tolerated rather than attracted; the curator was a keeper, not a 

 teacher. The New Museum Idea is a complete fulfilment of Francis 

 Bacon's plan of education as outlined in his "New Atlantis" (about 

 1617). 



The growing museum influence, which during the past quarter 

 of a century has been especially remarkable throughout the cities of 

 the United States, is largely due to what may be called the New 

 Museum Idea, namely, that the Museum is not a conservative but a 

 progressive educational force, that it has a teaching quality or value 

 peculiar to itself, that the Museum succeeds if it teaches, fails partially 

 if it merely amuses or interests people and fails entirely if it simply 

 mystifies. 



The new spirit within the natural history museum is the educa- 

 tional spirit, and this is animated by what may be called its ethical 

 sense, its sense of public duty, its realization that the general intelli- 

 gence and welfare of the people are the prime reasons for its existence, 

 that exploration, research, exhibition, and publication should ell con- 

 tribute to these ends, that to serve a community the Museum must 

 reach out to all parts of nature and must master what nature has to 

 show and to teach. The Museum will flourish if the high educational 

 service of the city and state is inscribed over its portal and instilled in 

 the mind of every member of the staff from the highest to the lowest. 



Education is a great deal more than the three R's : it is inspiration 

 as well as information ; it is instruction in local history, in geography 

 and geology, in travel, in climatic laws, in the simple economics of 

 food, in all that concerns personal health of mind and body, in the 

 natural history of flowers, forests, streams, of insects, fishes, birds, 

 and mammals, in all that living nature has to tell our youth. 



The chief subjects now extended to Schools by The American 

 Museum of Natural History are: 



Nature Study 



Lessons from the Life of Land and Sea, Insects, Fishes, 

 and Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, Mammals 



Geography of the World 



Physical Features — Travel, Adventure, Exploration 



