PREFACE Vv 
It is not intended that any special division of the subject 
should be confined to any one department of the school. On the 
contrary, the subject should be begun as a whole in the lower 
classes, where simple lessons, suited to this stage, will gradually 
prepare the way for the more detailed and exhaustive treatment 
necessary in the higher standards. This plan of adapting the 
treatment to the capacity of the child will be found running 
through the foot-notes at the end of most of the chapters. 
The importance of drawing in connection with Nature-study 
can hardly be over-estimated. Drawing is a mode of expressing 
thought and of recording observed facts, and demands both 
accuracy of observation and attention to details, which must 
make for the formation of habits of the greatest value to the child 
in after years. When and where possible, the objects under review 
should be drawn. The sketches may be rough, diagrammatic, 
and but crude reproductions of the original, but even these will 
leave behind a clearer and more lasting impression of what has 
been seen and learnt than if the lessons were unaccompanied by 
such aids. It is assumed that all teachers will recognise the truth 
of this, so that it has not been considered necessary throughout 
these pages to direct attention continually to the importance of 
drawing. 
The necessity for co-ordination applies to Nature-study as well 
as to other subjects ; and by this is meant not merely that the 
lessons and courses should themselves be correlated, but that 
other school subjects should have a close and direct bearing on 
the Nature-study scheme. This scheme should, as far as possible, 
be connected with the child’s surroundings—that is, it should deal 
with matters within the range of the child’s experience. It 
should be made the means of cultivating fulness and accuracy of 
verbal expression, and so become a fiedannn for language lessons. 
It should furnish subject-matter for exercises in composition. It 
should—as previously stated—be accompanied by drawing, and so 
link this subject to itself. It should provide material for 
exercises In various branches of handwork, and, if not continued 
throughout the school, should lead up to the science teaching in 
the upper classes. Still, it must not be forgotten that correlation 
and co-ordination have fies limits, and that ‘‘ correlation a the 
sake of correlation should be avoided.” 
A good deal has been said and written on the use of technical 
terms—some authorities recommending that they should be 
dispensed with altogether. With this view I entirely disagree. 
As the study of a subject progresses, it becomes necessary to 
