340 
Prof. Chas. E. Bessey, University of Nebraska : ''I realize that 
you have a problem which is entirely different from that which 
confronts us in the States, and as I look over the printed course 
of study it seems to me that you have mastered the situation in a 
most excellent way. I am greatly pleased with what you have 
outlined and I think especially that your plan of 'creating the 
necessity for language' in what you plan for the children to do is 
admirable. In this way you will accomplish the first great thing 
to be done, namely, that of bringing the children to an under- 
standing of the English language .... 
''Next to the acquisition of the English language by these peo- 
ple of many nationalities, an industrial training is of most im- 
portance, and since the work in the Islands is largely agricultural, 
it is desirable that the grammar schools should articulate with the 
agricultural college. So I commend this feature of your plan 
very thoroughly. . . . One thing must not be lost sight of, and 
that is that year by year all over the world we are becoming 
more and more mechanical ; that is, even in agriculture and horti- 
culture and allied subjects people are depending more and more 
upon mechanical devices, so that it is imperative that the indus- 
trial work that you give the pupils shall have much of the mecha- 
nical brought in. It is not enough that they should be taught to 
get out into the gardens and fields for agricultural purposes, but 
they must be taught to understand and to know mechanical pro- 
blems. 
"The only question that I have in connection with the printed 
course of study is whether you have not made the 'nature study' 
a little stiffer and harder than it should be for the degree of de- 
velopment of the children. This question is raised not as a finality, 
but merely as a question. However, this can be determined by 
trial. 
"I like very much your suggestion of 'collecting' under nature 
study. If you can extend this part of the nature study, I am sure 
3^ou will be helping to make it more efficient. 
"I shall be very glad to continue this correspondence, for I am 
greatly interested in it." 
(Note). Nature Study. In speaking of nature study, Dewey 
says : "The aim of the elementary school is wrong. It should not 
be knowledge but to organize the instincts and impulses of chil- 
dren into w^orking interests and tools." The stress should be on 
methods not results. Not that we do not want results but that 
we get better results when we transfer the emphasis of attention 
to the problem of mental attitude and operation. We need to 
develop a certain active interest in truth and its allies, a certain 
disposition of inquiry, together with the command of the tools 
that make it effective and to organize certain modes of activity and 
observation, construction, expression and reflection. 
Jas. E. Russell, Dean, Teacher's College, Columbia University: 
"Upon examination of the Course of Study which you sent, I find 
it very difficult to judge of the work Vv^hich you plan to do in your 
