N'ahire Study Confennice at Keighley. 



exhibits, provided much material of interest to the visitors. 

 Later an adjournment was made to the Town Hall, where tea 

 was provided, after which, under the presidency of the Mayor, 

 three papers were read and discussed bearing- on the various 

 aspects of Nature Study in schools. 



Mr. H. Mosley, of the Kirkheaton National School, dealt 

 with ' Nature Study in Schools under present Conditions,' and 

 he strongly advocated the development of this kind of work in 

 schools, though to make the most of it teachers should not be 

 too rigidly tied to time-tables. They needed, too, much help 

 and g-uidance in the matter, and he had found Prof. Miall's 

 recent book especially useful in preparing suitable lessons. 



Mr. T. W. Woodhead, of Huddersfield, followed with a 

 paper on 'Simple ^Methods of Nature Study.' He supposed 

 that the object of introducing- Nature Study and Object Lessons 

 into schools was to train and develop the powers of observation 

 of the child by the study of the things themselves ; therefore 

 object lessons without objects ought on no account to be per- 

 mitted in schools. The teacher should endeavour to interest 

 the child in plants and animals as living things, rather than as 

 specimens, and he showed by a larg-e number of interesting yet 

 simple experiments the many important lessons to be drawn 

 from the study of plants as living things. In this way, he said, 

 lessons could be made real and instinct with life and interest. 

 This means time and trouble, but when a good lesson has been 

 prepared the most should be made of it and used for lessons in 

 dictation, composition, drawing, etc. It is the duty of teachers 

 to make the most of their opportunities, and it is equally the 

 duty of Education Committees to support by every means in 

 their power the efforts of their teachers. Nature Study has 

 often been killed by apathy and want of sympathy on the part of 

 some inspectors, who make the most of the w^ant of knowledge 

 on the part of the teachers, while the trouble involved to the 

 teacher in obtaining objects renders this part of their work 

 irksome, and many complain of the stinginess of local com- 

 mittees in not supplying materials ; but he showed that expensive 

 materials were not necessary to really good work. He agreed 

 with Mr. Mosley that in this subject teachers need help and 

 guidance, and that if it is to be worthy of a place in our school 

 curriculum greater efforts will have to be made in this direction. 



When the subject is treated aright it cannot fail to show 

 how full of life and interest everything around us is, and that 

 life itself is dependent on a few interacting forces ; that when 



Naturalist, 



