[Illustration]
HANDBOOK OF
NATURE-STUDY
For Teachers and Parents
Based on the Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets, with Much
Additional Material and Many New Illustrations.
By ANNA BOTSFORD COMSTOCK, B.S.
Assistant Professor in Nature-Study in Cornell University; Author
of How to Keep Bees, and Ways of the Six-Footed; Illustrator and
Engraver for Manual for the Study of Insects and for Insect Life
[Illustration]
_SIXTH EDITION_
ITHACA, N. Y.
COMSTOCK PUBLISHING COMPANY
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1911
BY ANNA BOTSFORD COMSTOCK
TO
LIBERTY HYDE BAILEY
UNDER WHOSE WISE, STAUNCH AND INSPIRING LEADERSHIP THE
NATURE-STUDY WORK AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY
HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED
AND TO MY CO-WORKER
JOHN WALTON SPENCER
WHOSE COURAGE, RESOURCEFULNESS AND UNTIRING ZEAL
WERE POTENT FACTORS IN THE SUCCESS
OF THE CAUSE
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
PREFACE
The Cornell University Nature-Study propaganda was essentially
an agricultural movement in its inception and its aims; it was
inaugurated as a direct aid to better methods of agriculture in New
York State. During the years of agricultural depression 1891–1893,
the Charities of New York City found it necessary to help many people
who had come from the rural districts--a condition hitherto unknown.
The philanthropists managing the Association for Improving the
Condition of the Poor asked, “What is the matter with the land of New
York State that it cannot support its own population?” A conference
was called to consider the situation to which many people from
different parts of the State were invited; among them was the author
of this book, who little realized that in attending that meeting the
whole trend of her activities would be thereby changed. Mr. George T.
Powell, who had been a most efficient Director of Farmers’ Institutes
of New York State was invited to the conference as an expert to
explain conditions and give advice as to remedies. The situation
seemed so serious that a Committee for the Promotion of Agriculture
in New York State was appointed. Of this committee the Honorable
Abram S. Hewitt was Chairman, Mr. R. Fulton Cutting, Treasurer, Mr.
Wm. H. Tolman, Secretary. The other members were Walter L. Suydam,
Wm. E. Dodge, Jacob H. Schiff, George T. Powell, G. Howard Davidson,
Howard Townsend, Professor I. P. Roberts, C. McNamee, Mrs. J. R.
Lowell, and Mrs. A. B. Comstock. Mr. George T. Powell was made
Director of the Department of Agricultural Education.
At the first meeting of this committee Mr. Powell made a strong plea
for interesting the children of the country in farming as a remedial
measure, and maintained that the first step toward agriculture
was nature-study. It had been Mr. Powell’s custom to give simple
agricultural and nature-study instruction to the school children of
every town where he was conducting a farmers’ institute, and his
opinion was, therefore, based upon experience. The committee desired
to see for itself the value of this idea, and experimental work was
suggested, using the schools of Westchester County as a laboratory.
Mr. R. Fulton Cutting generously furnished the funds for this
experiment, and work was done that year in the Westchester schools,
which satisfied the committee of the soundness of the project.
The committee naturally concluded that such a fundamental movement
must be a public rather than a private enterprise; and Mr. Frederick
Nixon then Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the Assembly,
was invited to meet with the committee at Mr. Hewitt’s home. Mr.
Nixon had been from the beginning of his public career deeply
interested in improving the farming conditions of the State. In
1894, it was through his influence and the support given him by the
Chautauqua Horticultural Society under the leadership of Mr. John W.
Spencer, that an appropriation had been given to Cornell University
for promoting the horticultural interests of the western counties of
the State. In addition to other work done through this appropriation,
horticultural schools were conducted under the direction of Professor
L. H. Bailey with the aid of other Cornell instructors and especially
of Mr. E. G. Lodeman; these schools had proved to be most useful
and were well attended. Therefore, Mr. Nixon was open-minded toward
an educational movement. He listened to the plan of the committee
and after due consideration declared that if this new measure would
surely help the farmers of the State, the money would be forthcoming.
The committee unanimously decided that if an appropriation were
made for this purpose it should be given to the Cornell College of
Agriculture; and that year eight thousand dollars was added to the
Cornell University Fund, for Extension Teaching and inaugurating this
work. The work was begun under Professor I. P. Roberts; after one
year Professor Roberts placed it under the supervision of Professor
L. H. Bailey, who for the fifteen years since has been the inspiring
leader of the movement, as well as the official head.
In 1896, Mr. John W. Spencer, a fruit grower in Chautauqua County,
became identified with the enterprise; he had lived in rural
communities and he knew their needs. He it was who first saw clearly
that the first step in the great work was to help the teacher
through simply written leaflets; and later he originated the great
plan of organizing the children in the schools of the State into
Junior Naturalists Clubs, which developed a remarkable phase of the
movement. The members of these clubs paid their dues by writing
letters about their nature observations to Mr. Spencer, who speedily
became their beloved “Uncle John;” a button and charter were given
for continued and earnest work. Some years, 30,000 children were thus
brought into direct communication with Cornell University through Mr.
Spencer. A monthly leaflet for Junior Naturalists followed; and it
was to help in this enterprise that Miss Alice G. McCloskey, the able
Editor of the present _Rural School Leaflet_, was brought into the
work. Later, Mr. Spencer organized the children’s garden movement by
forming the children of the State into junior gardeners; at one time
he had 25,000 school pupils working in gardens and reporting to him.
In 1899, Mrs. Mary Rogers Miller, who had proven a most efficient
teacher when representing Cornell nature-study in the State Teachers’
Institutes, planned and started the Home Nature-Study Course Leaflets
for the purpose of helping the teachers by correspondence, a work
which fell to the author in 1903 when Mrs. Miller was called to other
fields.
For the many years during which New York State has intrusted this
important work to Cornell University, the teaching of nature-study
has gone steadily on in the University, in teachers’ institutes,
in State summer schools, through various publications and in
correspondence courses. Many have assisted in this work, notably
Dr. W. C. Thro, Dr. A. A. Allen, and Miss Ada Georgia. The New York
Education Department with Charles R. Skinner as Commissioner of
Education and Dr. Isaac Stout as the Director of Teachers’ Institutes
co-operated heartily with the movement from the first. Later with the
co-operation of Dr. Andrew Draper, as Commissioner of Education, many
of the Cornell leaflets have been written with the special purpose of
aiding in carrying out the New York State Syllabus in Nature-Study
and Agriculture.
The leaflets upon which this volume is based were published in the
Home Nature-Study Course during the years 1903–1911, in limited
editions and were soon out of print. It is to make these lessons
available to the general public that this volume has been compiled.
While the subject matter of the lessons herein given is essentially
the same as in the leaflets, the lessons have all been rewritten for
the sake of consistency, and many new lessons have been added to
bridge gaps and make a coherent whole.
Because the lessons were written during a period of so many years,
each lesson has been prepared as if it were the only one, and without
reference to others. If there is any uniformity of plan in the
lessons, it is due to the inherent qualities of the subjects, and not
to a type plan in the mind of the writer; for, in her opinion, each
subject should be treated individually in nature-study; and in her
long experience as a nature-study teacher she has never been able to
give a lesson twice alike on a certain topic or secure exactly the
same results twice in succession. It should also be stated that it
is not because the author undervalues physics nature-study that it
has been left out of these lessons, but because her own work has been
always along biological lines.
The reason why nature-study has not yet accomplished its mission, as
thought-core for much of the required work in our public schools,
is that the teachers are as a whole untrained in the subject. The
children are eager for it, unless it is spoiled in the teaching;
and whenever we find a teacher with an understanding of out-of-door
life and a love for it, there we find nature-study in the school
is an inspiration and a joy to pupils and teacher. It is because
of the author’s sympathy with the untrained teacher and her full
comprehension of her difficulties and helplessness that this book has
been written. These difficulties are chiefly three-fold: The teacher
does not know what there is to see in studying a plant or animal;
she knows little of the literature that might help her; and because
she knows so little of the subject, she has no interest in giving a
lesson about it. As a matter of fact, the literature concerning our
common animals and plants is so scattered that a teacher would need
a large library and almost unlimited time to prepare lessons for an
extended nature-study course.
The writer’s special work for fifteen years in Extension teaching
has been the helping of the untrained teacher through personal
instruction and through leaflets. Many methods were tried and finally
there was evolved the method followed in this volume: All the facts
available and pertinent concerning each topic have been assembled in
the “Teacher’s story” to make her acquainted with the subject; this
is followed by an outline for observation on the part of the pupils
while studying the object. It would seem that with the teacher’s
story before the eyes of the teacher, and the subject of the lesson
before the eyes of the pupils with a number of questions leading them
to see the essential characteristics of the object, there should
result a wider knowledge of nature than is given in this or any other
book.
That the lessons are given in a very informal manner, and that
the style of writing is often colloquial, result from the fact
that the leaflets upon which the book is based were written for a
correspondence course in which the communications were naturally
informal and chatty. That the book is meant for those untrained in
science accounts for the rather loose terminology employed; as, for
instance, the use of the word _seed_ in the popular sense whether
it be a drupe, an akene, or other form of fruit; or the use of the
word _pod_ for almost any seed envelope, and many like instances.
Also, it is very likely, that in teaching quite incidentally the
rudiments of the principles of evolution, the results may often seem
to be confused with an idea of purpose, which is quite unscientific.
But let the critic labor for fifteen years to interest the untrained
adult mind in nature’s ways, before he casts any stones! And it
should be always borne in mind that if the author has not dipped deep
in the wells of science, she has used only a child’s cup.
For many years requests have been frequent from parents who have
wished to give their children nature interests during vacations in
the country. They have been borne in mind in planning this volume;
the lessons are especially fitted for field work, even though
schoolroom methods are so often suggested.
The author feels apologetic that the book is so large. However, it
does not contain more than any intelligent country child of twelve
should know of his environment; things that he should know naturally
and without effort, although it might take him half his life-time to
learn so much if he should not begin before the age of twenty. That
there are inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and even blunders in the
volume is quite inevitable. The only excuse to be offered is that,
if through its use, the children of our land learn early to read
nature’s truths with their own eyes, it will matter little to them
what is written in books.
The author wishes to make grateful acknowledgment to the following
people: To Professor Wilford M. Wilson for his chapter on the
weather; to Miss Mary E. Hill for the lessons on mould, bacteria, the
minerals, and reading the weather maps; to Miss Catherine Straith
for the lessons on the earthworm and the soil; to Miss Ada Georgia
for much valuable assistance in preparing the original leaflets on
which these lessons are based; to Dean L. H. Bailey and to Dr. David
S. Jordan for permission to quote their writings; to Mr. John W.
Spencer for the use of his story on the movements of the sun; to Dr.
Grove Karl Gilbert, Dr. A. C. Gill, Dr. Benjamin Duggar, Professor
S. H. Gage and Dr. J. G. Needham for reading and criticizing parts
of the manuscript; to Miss Eliza Tonks for reading the proof; to the
Director of the College of Agriculture for use of the engravings made
for the original leaflets; to Miss Martha Van Rensselaer for the use
of many pictures from _Boys and Girls_; to Professor Cyrus Crosby,
and to Messrs. J. T. Lloyd, A. A. Allen and R. Matheson for the use
of their personal photographs; to the U. S. Geological Survey and the
U. S. Forest Service for the use of photographs; to Louis A. Fuertes
for drawings of birds; to Houghton, Mifflin & Company for the use
of the poems of Lowell, Harte and Larcom, and various extracts from
Burroughs and Thoreau; to Small, Maynard & Company and to John Lane
& Company for the use of poems of John T. Babb; to Doubleday, Page
& Company for the use of pictures of birds and flowers; and to the
American Book Company for the use of electrotypes of dragon-flies and
astronomy. Especially thanks are extended to Miss Anna C. Stryke for
numerous drawings, including most of the initials.
[Illustration]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I
THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY
Page
What Nature-Study is 1
What Nature-Study Should do for the Child 1
Nature-Study as a Help to Health 2
What Nature-Study Should do for the Teacher 2
When and Why the Teacher Should say “I do not know!” 3
Nature-Study, The Elixir of Youth 4
Nature-Study as a Help in School Discipline 4
The Relation of Nature-Study to Science 5
Nature-Study not for Drill 6
The Child not Interested in Nature-Study 6
When to Give the Lesson 6
The Length of the Lesson 7
The Nature-Study Lesson Always New 7
Nature-Study and Object Lessons 7
Nature-Study in the Schoolroom 8
Nature-Study and Museum Specimens 8
The Lens, Microscope and Field-glass as Helps 9
Use of Pictures, Charts and Blackboard Drawings 10
The Use of Scientific Names 10
The Story as a Supplement to the Nature-Study Lesson 10
The Nature-Study Attitude toward Life and Death 11
Should the Nature-Study Teacher Teach How to Destroy Life? 13
The Field Note-book 13
The Field Excursion 15
Pets as Nature-Study Subjects 15
The Correlation of Nature-Study with Language Work 16
The Correlation of Nature-Study with Drawing 17
The Correlation of Nature-Study with Geography 18
The Correlation of Nature-Study with History 18
The Correlation of Nature-Study with Arithmetic 19
Gardening and Nature-Study 20
Nature-Study and Agriculture 21
Nature-Study Clubs 22
How to Use this Book 24
PART II
ANIMAL LIFE
_I Bird Study_
Beginning Bird Study in the Primary Grades 25
Feathers as Clothing 27
Feathers as Ornament 30
How Birds Fly 33
Eyes and Ears of Birds 36
The Form and Use of Beaks 37
The Feet of Birds 39
Chicken Ways 41
Pigeons 45
The Canary and the Goldfinch 49
The Robin 54
The Bluebird 60
The White-breasted Nuthatch 63
The Chickadee 66
The Downy Woodpecker 69
The Sapsucker 73
The Redheaded Woodpecker 75
The Flicker or Yellow-hammer 77
The Meadowlark 80
The English Sparrow 84
The Chipping Sparrow 88
The Song Sparrow 91
The Mockingbird 94
The Catbird 98
The Belted Kingfisher 101
The Screech Owl 104
The Red Shouldered and Red Tailed Hawks 108
The Swallows and the Chimney Swift 112
The Hummingbird 120
The Red-winged Blackbird 122
The Baltimore Oriole 125
The Crow 129
The Cardinal Grosbeak 133
Geese 136
The Turkey 143
The Study of Birds’ Nests in Winter 147
_II Fish Study_
The Goldfish 149
The Bullhead 154
The Common Sucker 158
The Shiner 161
Brook Trout 164
The Stickleback 168
The Sunfish 172
The Johnny Darter 177
_III Batrachian Study_
The Common Toad 181
The Tadpole Aquarium 185
The Tree-frog or Tree-toad 190
The Frog 193
The Newt, Eft or Salamander 197
_IV Reptile Study_
The Garter or Garden Snake 201
The Milk Snake, or Spotted Adder 204
The Water Snake 206
The Turtle 208
_V Mammal Study_
The Cotton-tail Rabbit 213
The Muskrat 218
The House Mouse 224
The Woodchuck 229
The Red Squirrel or Chickaree 233
Furry 238
The Chipmunk 240
The Little Brown Bat 243
The Skunk 247
The Raccoon 250
The Wolf 255
The Fox 257
Dogs 261
The Cat 268
The Goat 275
The Sheep 281
The Horse 286
Cattle 295
The Pig 303
_VI Insect Study_
The Life History of Insects 308
The Structure of Insects 312
The Black Swallow-tail Butterfly 315
The Monarch Butterfly 320
The Isabella Tiger Moth or Woolly Bear 326
The Cecropia 330
The Promethea 336
The Hummingbird, or Sphinx, Moths 340
The Codling Moth 347
Leaf-miners 352
The Leaf-rollers 357
The Gall-dwellers 360
The Grasshopper 365
The Katydid 370
The Black Cricket 373
The Snowy Tree-cricket 377
The Cockroach 378
How to Make an Aquarium for Insects 380
The Dragon-flies and Damsel-flies 382
The Caddis-worms and the Caddis-flies 387
The Aphids or Plant Lice 392
The Ant-lion 395
Mother Lace-wing and the Aphis-lion 397
The Mosquito 400
The House-fly 405
The Colorado Potato-beetle 409
The Ladybird 413
The Firefly 416
The Ways of the Ant 419
How to Make a Lubbock Ant-Nest 423
The Ant-Nest and What May be Seen Within it 425
The Mud-dauber 429
The Yellow-jacket 432
The Leaf-cutter Bee 436
The Little Carpenter Bee 439
The Bumblebee 442
The Honey-bee 445
The Honey-comb 451
Industries of the Hive and the Observation Hive 453
_VII Other Invertebrate-Animal Study_
The Garden Snail 458
The Earthworm 462
The Crayfish 466
Daddy Longlegs, or Grandfather Greybeard 472
Spiders 475
The Funnel-web 477
The Orb-web 478
The Filmy Dome 483
Ballooning Spiders 484
The White Crab-Spider 485
How the Spider Mothers Take Care of their Young 487
PART III
PLANT LIFE
How to Begin the Study of Plants and Flowers 489
How to Make Plants Comfortable 490
How to Teach the Names of the Parts of a Flower 492
Teach the Use of a Flower 493
Flowers and Insect Partners 494
The Relation of Plants to Geography 495
Seed Germination 495
_I Wild-flower Study_
The Hepatica 496
The Yellow Adder’s Tongue 499
Bloodroot 503
The Trillium 506
Dutchman’s Breeches and Squirrel Corn 509
Jack-in-the-Pulpit 512
The Violet 515
The May Apple or Mandrake 519
The Bluets 523
The Yellow Lady’s Slipper, or Moccasin Flower 525
The Common Buttercup 528
The Evening Primrose 530
The Hedge Bindweed 535
The Dodder 538
The Milkweed 540
The White Water Lily 545
Pondweed 548
The Cat-tail 551
A Type Lesson for a Composite Flower 554
The Goldenrod 555
The Asters 558
The White Daisy 560
The Yellow Daisy or Black-eyed Susan 562
The Thistle 563
The Burdock 566
Prickly Lettuce, A Compass Plant 570
The Dandelion 572
The Pearly Everlasting 576
The Jewelweed, or Touch-me-not 578
Mullein 582
The Teasel 586
Queen Anne’s Lace, or Wild Carrot 589
Weeds 594
Outline for the Study of a Weed 595
_II Cultivated-Plant Study_
The Crocus 596
Daffodils and their Relatives 599
The Tulip 603
The Pansy 607
The Bleeding Heart 611
Poppies 613
The California Poppy 616
The Nasturtium 620
The Bee-Larkspur 623
The Blue Flag, or Iris 626
The Sunflower 631
The Bachelor’s Button 636
The Salvia or Scarlet Sage 637
Petunias 640
The Horseshoe Geranium 643
The Sweet Pea 649
The Clovers 652
Sweet Clover 655
The White Clover 658
Maize, or Indian Corn 660
The Cotton Plant 666
The Strawberry 672
The Pumpkin 675
_III Flowerless-Plant Study_
The Christmas Fern 684
The Bracken 689
How a Fern Bud Unfolds 691
The Fruiting of the Fern 693
The Field Horsetail 699
The Hair-cap Moss, or Pigeon Wheat 702
Mushrooms and other Fungi 706
Puffballs 712
The Bracket Fungi 714
Hedgehog Fungi 717
The Scarlet Saucer 718
The Morels 719
The Stinkhorns 720
Molds 720
Bacteria 723
_IV Tree Study_
How a Tree Grows 726
How to Begin Tree Study 731
How to Make Leaf Prints 734
The Maples 736
The American Elm 745
The Oak 748
The Shagbark Hickory 755
The Chestnut 757
The Horse-Chestnut 761
The Willows 765
The Cottonwood or Carolina Poplar 770
The White Ash 774
The Apple Tree 778
How an Apple Grows 782
The Apple 785
The Pine 789
The Norway Spruce 796
The Hemlock 801
The Flowering Dogwood 803
The Staghorn Sumac 806
The Witch-Hazel 810
The Mountain Laurel 813
PART IV
EARTH AND SKY
The Brook 818
How a Brook Drops its Load 822
Crystal Growth 825
Salt 827
How to Study Minerals 828
Quartz 829
Feldspar 831
Mica 832
Granite 833
Calcite, marble and Limestone 835
The Magnet 838
The Soil 842
Water Forms 850
The Weather 857
Experiments to Show Air Pressure 877
The Barometer 878
How to read Weather Maps 879
The Story of the Stars 887
How to Begin Star Study 889
Cassiopeia’s Chair, Cepheus and the Dragon 893
The Winter Stars 895
Orion 895
Aldebaran and the Pleiades 897
The Two Dog-Stars, Sirius and Procyon 898
Capella and the Heavenly Twins 900
The Stars of Summer 901
The Sun 905
The Relation between the Tropic of Cancer and the Planting of
the Garden 909
The Zodiac and its Signs 911
The Relations of the Sun to the Earth 913
How to Make a Sun-dial 915
The Moon 918
_In Nature’s infinite book of secrecy
A little can I read._
--SHAKESPEARE.
PART I.
THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY
WHAT NATURE-STUDY IS
[Illustration: N]
Nature-study is, despite all discussions and perversions, a study
of nature; it consists of simple, truthful observations that may,
like beads on a string, finally be threaded upon the understanding
and thus held together as a logical and harmonious whole. Therefore,
the object of the nature-study teacher should be to cultivate in the
children powers of accurate observation and to build up within them,
understanding.
WHAT NATURE-STUDY SHOULD DO FOR THE CHILD
[Illustration: F]
First, but not most important, nature-study gives the child practical
and helpful knowledge. It makes him familiar with nature’s ways and
forces, so that he is not so helpless in the presence of natural
misfortune and disasters.
Nature-study cultivates the child’s imagination since there are so
many wonderful and true stories that he may read with his own eyes,
which affect his imagination as much as does fairy lore; at the same
time nature-study cultivates in him a perception and a regard for
what _is_ true, and the power to express it. All things seem possible
in nature; yet this seeming is always guarded by the eager quest of
what is true. Perhaps, half the falsehood in the world is due to lack
of power to detect the truth and to express it. Nature-study aids
both in discernment and expression of things as they are.
Nature-study cultivates in the child a love of the beautiful; it
brings to him early a perception of color, form and music. He sees
whatever there is in his environment, whether it be the thunder-head
piled up in the western sky, or the golden flash of the oriole in
the elm; whether it be the purple of the shadows on the snow, or the
azure glint on the wing of the little butterfly. Also, what there is
of sound, he hears; he reads the music score of the bird orchestra,
separating each part and knowing which bird sings it. And the patter
of the rain, the gurgle of the brook, the sighing of the wind in the
pine, he notes and loves and becomes enriched thereby.
But, more than all, nature-study gives the child a sense of
companionship with life out of doors and an abiding love of nature.
Let this latter be the teacher’s criterion for judging his or her
work. If nature-study as taught does not make the child love nature
and the out-of-doors, then it should cease. Let us not inflict
permanent injury on the child by turning him away from nature instead
of toward it. However, if the love of nature is in the teacher’s
heart, there is no danger; such a teacher, no matter by what method,
takes the child gently by the hand and walks with him in paths that
lead to the seeing and comprehending of what he may find beneath his
feet or above his head. And these paths whether they lead among the
lowliest plants, or whether to the stars, finally converge and bring
the wanderer to that serene peace and hopeful faith that is the sure
inheritance of all those who realize fully that they are working
units of this wonderful universe.
NATURE-STUDY AS A HELP TO HEALTH
[Illustration: P]
Perhaps the most valuable practical lesson the child gets from
nature-study is a personal knowledge that nature’s laws are not to be
evaded. Wherever he looks, he discovers that attempts at such evasion
result in suffering and death. A knowledge thus naturally attained of
the immutability of nature’s “must” and “shall not” is in itself a
moral education. That the fool as well as the transgressor fares ill
in breaking natural laws, makes for wisdom in morals as well as in
hygiene.
Out-of-door life takes the child afield and keeps him in the open
air, which not only helps him physically and occupies his mind
with sane subjects, but keeps him out of mischief. It is not only
during childhood that this is true, for love of nature counts much
for sanity in later life. This is an age of nerve tension, and the
relaxation which comes from the comforting companionship found
in woods and fields is, without doubt, the best remedy for this
condition. Too many men who seek the out-of-doors for rest at the
present time, can only find it with a gun in hand. To rest and heal
their nerves they must go out and try to kill some unfortunate
creature,--the old, old story of sacrificial blood. Far better will
it be when, through properly training the child, the man shall be
enabled to enjoy nature through seeing how creatures live rather than
watching them die. It is the sacred privilege of nature-study to do
this for future generations and for him thus trained, shall the words
of Longfellow’s poem to Agassiz apply:
“_And he wandered away and away, with Nature the dear old nurse,
Who sang to him night and day, the rhymes of the universe.
And when the way seemed long, and his heart began to fail,
She sang a more wonderful song, or told a more wonderful tale._”
WHAT NATURE-STUDY SHOULD DO FOR THE TEACHER
[Illustration: D]
During many years, I have been watching teachers in our public
schools in their conscientious and ceaseless work; and so far as
I can foretell, the fate that awaits them finally is either nerve
exhaustion or nerve atrophy. The teacher must become either a
neurasthenic or a “clam.”
I have had conversations with hundreds of teachers in the public
schools of New York State concerning the introduction of nature-study
into the curriculum, and most of them declared, “Oh, we have not
time for it. Every moment is full now!” Their nerves were at such
a tension that with one more thing to do they must fall apart. The
question in my own mind during these conversations was always, how
long can she stand it! I asked some of them “Did you ever try a
vigorous walk in the open air in the open country every Saturday
or every Sunday of your teaching year?” “Oh no!” they exclaimed in
despair of making me understand. “On Sunday we must go to church
or see our friends and on Saturday we must do our shopping or our
sewing. We must go to the dressmaker’s lest we go unclad, we must
mend, and darn stockings; we need Saturday to catch up.”
Yes, catch up with more cares, more worries, more fatigue, but not
with more growth, more strength, more vigor and more courage for
work. In my belief, there are two and only two occupations for
Saturday afternoon or forenoon for a teacher. One is to be out of
doors and the other is to lie in bed, and the first is best. Out in
this, God’s beautiful world, there is everything waiting to heal
lacerated nerves, to strengthen tired muscles, to please and content
the soul that is torn to shreds with duty and care. To the teacher
who turns to nature’s healing, nature-study in the schoolroom is not
a trouble; it is a sweet, fresh breath of air blown across the heat
of radiators and the noisome odor of over-crowded small humanity.
She, who opens her eyes and her heart nature-ward even once a week,
finds nature-study in the schoolroom a delight and an abiding joy.
What does such a one find in her schoolroom instead of the terrors
of discipline, the eternal watching and eternal nagging to keep the
pupils quiet and at work? She finds, first of all, companionship with
her children; and second, she finds that without planning or going on
a far voyage, she has found health and strength.
WHEN AND WHY THE TEACHER SHOULD SAY “I DO NOT KNOW”
[Illustration: N]
No science professor in any university, if he be a man of high
attainment, hesitates to say to his pupils “I do not know,” if they
ask for information beyond his knowledge. The greater his scientific
reputation and erudition, the more readily, simply and without
apology he says this. He, better than others, comprehends how vast
is the region that lies beyond man’s present knowledge. It is only
the teacher in the elementary schools who has never received enough
scientific training to reveal to her how little she does know, who
feels that she must appear to know everything or her pupils will lose
confidence in her. But how useless is this pretence, in nature-study!
The pupils, whose younger eyes are much keener for details than hers,
will soon discover her limitations and then their distrust of her
will be real.
In nature-study any teacher can with honor say, “I do not know;”
for perhaps, the question asked is as yet unanswered by the great
scientists. But she should not let her lack of knowledge be a wet
blanket thrown over her pupils’ interest. She should say frankly,
“I do not know; let us see if we cannot together find out this
mysterious thing. Maybe no one knows it as yet, and I wonder if you
will discover it before I do.” She thus conveys the right impression,
that only a little about the intricate life of plants and animals is
yet known; and at the same time she makes her pupils feel the thrill
and zest of investigation. Nor will she lose their respect by doing
this, if she does it in the right spirit. For three years, I had for
comrades in my walks afield, two little children and they kept me
busy saying, “I do not know”. But they never lost confidence in me
or in my knowledge; they simply gained respect for the vastness of
the unknown.
The chief charm of nature-study would be taken away if it did not
lead us through the border-land of knowledge into the realm of the
undiscovered. Moreover, the teacher, in confessing her ignorance
and at the same time her interest in a subject, establishes between
herself and her pupils a sense of companionship which relieves the
strain of discipline, and gives her a new and intimate relation with
her pupils which will surely prove a potent element in her success.
The best teacher is always one who is the good comrade of her pupils.
NATURE-STUDY, THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH
[Illustration: T]
The old teacher is too likely to become didactic, dogmatic and
“bossy” if she does not constantly strive with herself. Why? She has
to be thus five days in the week and, therefore, she is likely to
be so seven. She knows arithmetic, grammar and geography to their
uttermost and she is never allowed to forget that she knows them, and
finally her interests become limited to what she knows.
After all, what is the chief sign of growing old? Is it not the
feeling that we know all there is to be known? It is not years which
make people old; it is ruts, and a limitation of interests. When we
no longer care about anything except our own interests, we are then
old, it matters not whether our years be twenty or eighty. It is
rejuvenation for the teacher, thus growing old, to stand ignorant
as a child in the presence of one of the simplest of nature’s
miracles--the formation of a crystal, the evolution of the butterfly
from the caterpillar, the exquisite adjustment of the silken lines in
the spider’s orb-web. I know how to “make magic” for the teacher who
is growing old. Let her go out with her youngest pupil and fall on
her knees before the miracle of the blossoming violet and say: “Dear
Nature, I know naught of the wondrous life of these, your smallest
creatures. Teach me!” and she will suddenly find herself young.
NATURE-STUDY AS A HELP IN SCHOOL DISCIPLINE
[Illustration: M]
Much of the naughtiness in school is a result of the child’s lack of
interest in his work, augmented by the physical inaction that results
from an attempt to sit quietly. The best teachers try to obviate both
of these rather than to punish because of them. Nature-study is an
aid in both respects, since it keeps the child interested and also
gives him something to do.
In the nearest approach to an ideal school that I have ever seen,
for children of second grade, the pupils were allowed, as a reward
of merit, to visit the aquaria or the terrarium for periods of
five minutes, which time was given to the blissful observation of
the fascinating prisoners. The teacher also allowed the reading
of stories about the plants and animals under observation to be
regarded as a reward of merit. As I entered the schoolroom, there
were eight or ten of the children at the windows watching eagerly
what was happening to the creatures confined there in the various
cages. There was a mud aquarium for the frogs and salamanders, an
aquarium for fish, many small aquaria for insects and each had one or
two absorbingly interested spectators who were quiet, well behaved
and were getting their nature-study lessons in an ideal manner. The
teacher told me that the problem of discipline was solved by this
method, and that she was rarely obliged to rebuke or punish. In many
other schools, watching the living creatures in the aquaria, or
terrarium has been used as a reward for other work well done.
THE RELATION OF NATURE-STUDY TO SCIENCE
[Illustration: N]
Nature-study is not elementary science as so taught, because its
point of attack is not the same; error in this respect has caused
many a teacher to abandon nature-study and many a pupil to hate it.
In elementary science the work begins with the simplest animals and
plants and progresses logically through to the highest forms; at
least this is the method pursued in most universities and schools.
The object of the study is to give the pupils an outlook over all the
forms of life and their relation one to another. In nature-study the
work begins with any plant or creature which chances to interest the
pupil. It begins with the robin when it comes back to us in March,
promising spring; or it begins with the maple leaf which flutters
to the ground in all the beauty of its autumnal tints. A course
in biological science leads to the comprehension of all kinds of
life upon our globe. Nature-study is for the comprehension of the
individual life of the bird, insect or plant that is nearest at hand.
Nature-study is perfectly good science within its limits, but it is
not meant to be more profound or comprehensive than the capabilities
of the child’s mind. More than all, nature-study is not science
belittled as if it were to be looked at through the reversed opera
glass in order to bring it down small enough for the child to play
with. Nature-study, as far as it goes, is just as large as is science
for “grown-ups” and may deal with the same subject matter and should
be characterized by the same accuracy. It simply does not go so far.
To illustrate: If we are teaching the science of ornithology, we
take first the Archaeopteryx, then the swimming and the scratching
birds and finally reach the song birds, studying each as a part of
the whole. Nature-study begins with the robin because the child
sees it and is interested in it and he notes the things about the
habits and appearance of the robin that may be perceived by intimate
observation. In fact, he discovers for himself all that the most
advanced book of ornithology would give concerning the ordinary
habits of this one bird; the next bird studied may be the turkey
in the barnyard, or the duck on the pond, or the screech-owl in
the spruces, if any of these happen to impinge upon his notice
and interest. However, such nature-study makes for the best of
scientific ornithology, because by studying the individual birds thus
thoroughly, the pupil finally studies a sufficient number of forms so
that his knowledge, thus assembled, gives him a better comprehension
of birds as a whole than could be obtained by the routine study of
the same. Nature-study does not start out with the classification
given in books, but in the end it builds up a classification in
the child’s mind which is based on fundamental knowledge; it is a
classification like that evolved by the first naturalists, it is
built on careful personal observations of both form and life.
NATURE-STUDY NOT FOR DRILL
If nature-study is made a drill, its pedagogic value is lost. When it
is properly taught, the child is unconscious of mental effort or that
he is suffering the act of teaching. As soon as nature-study becomes
a task, it should be dropped; but how could it ever be a task to see
that the sky is blue, or the dandelion golden, or to listen to the
oriole in the elm!
THE CHILD NOT INTERESTED IN NATURE-STUDY
[Illustration: W]
What to do with the pupil not interested in nature-study subjects is
a problem that confronts many earnest teachers. Usually the reason
for this lack of interest, is the limited range of subjects used for
nature-study lessons. Often the teacher insists upon flowers as the
lesson subject, when toads or snakes would prove the key to the door
of the child’s interest. But whatever the cause may be, there is only
one right way out of this difficulty: The child not interested should
be kept at his regular school work and not admitted as a member of
the nature-study class, where his influence is always demoralizing.
He had much better be learning his spelling lesson than learning to
hate nature through being obliged to study subjects in which he is
not interested. In general, it is safe to assume that the pupil’s
lack of interest in nature-study is owing to a fault in the teacher’s
method. She may be trying to fill the child’s mind with facts when
she should be leading him to observe these for himself, which is a
most entertaining occupation for the child. It should always be borne
in mind that mere curiosity is always impertinent, and that it is
never more so than when exercised in the realm of nature. A genuine
interest should be the basis of the study of the lives of plants and
lower animals. Curiosity may elicit facts, but only real interest may
mold these facts into wisdom.
WHEN TO GIVE THE LESSON
[Illustration: T]
There are two theories concerning the time when a nature-study
lesson should be given. Some teachers believe that it should be a
part of the regular routine; others have found it of greatest value
if reserved for that period of the school day when the pupils are
weary and restless, and the teacher’s nerves strained to the snapping
point. The lesson on a tree, insect or flower at such a moment
affords immediate relief to everyone; it is a mental excursion, from
which all return refreshed and ready to finish the duties of the day.
While I am convinced that the use of the nature-study lesson for
mental refreshment makes it of greatest value, yet I realize fully
that if it is relegated to such periods, it may not be given at all.
It might be better to give it a regular period late in the day, for
there is strength and sureness in regularity. The teacher is much
more likely to prepare herself for the lesson, if she knows that it
is required at a certain time.
THE LENGTH OF THE LESSON
[Illustration: T]
The nature-study lesson should be short and sharp and may vary from
ten minutes to a half hour in length. There should be no dawdling;
if it is an observation lesson, only a few points should be noted
and the meaning for the observations made clear. If an outline be
suggested for field observation, it should be given in an inspiring
manner which shall make each pupil anxious to see and read the truth
for himself. The nature story when properly read is never finished;
it is always at an interesting point, “continued in our next.”
The teacher may judge as to her own progress in nature-study by the
length of time she is glad to spend in reading from nature’s book
what is therein written. As she progresses, she finds those hours
spent in studying nature speed faster, until a day thus spent seems
but an hour. The author can think of nothing she would so gladly do
as to spend days and months with the birds, bees and flowers with no
obligation for telling what she should see. There is more than mere
information in hours thus spent. Lowell describes them well when he
says:
“_Those old days when the balancing of a yellow butterfly o’er
a thistle bloom
Was spiritual food and lodging for the whole afternoon._”
THE NATURE-STUDY LESSON ALWAYS NEW
A nature-study lesson should not be repeated unless the pupils
demand it. It should be done so well the first time that there is
no need of repetition, because it has thus become a part of the
child’s consciousness. The repetition of the same lesson in different
grades was, to begin with, a hopeless incubus upon nature-study.
One disgusted boy declared, “Darn germination! I had it in the
primary and last year and now I am having it again. I know _all
about germination_.” The boy’s attitude was a just one; but if there
had been revealed to him the meaning of germination, instead of
the mere process, he would have realized that until he had planted
and observed every plant in the world he would not know all about
germination, because each seedling has its own interesting story.
The only excuse for repeating a nature-study lesson is in recalling
it for comparison and contrast with other lessons. The study of
the violet will naturally bring about a review of the pansy; the
dandelion, of the sunflower; the horse, of the donkey; the butterfly,
of the moth.
NATURE-STUDY AND OBJECT LESSONS
[Illustration: T]
The object lesson method was introduced to drill the child to see
a thing accurately, not only as a whole, but in detail and to
describe accurately what he saw. A book or a vase or some other
object was held up before the class for a moment and then removed;
afterwards the pupils described it as perfectly as possible. This
is an excellent exercise and the children usually enjoy it as if it
were a game. But if the teacher has in mind the same thought when
she is giving the nature-study lesson, she has little comprehension
of the meaning of the latter and the pupils will have less. In
nature-study, it is not desirable that the child see all the details,
but rather those details that have something to do with the life
of the creature studied; if he sees that the grasshopper has the
hind legs much longer than the others, he will inevitably note that
there are two other pairs of legs and he will in the meantime have
come into an illuminating comprehension of the reason the insect is
called “grasshopper.” The child should see definitely and accurately
all that is necessary for the recognition of a plant or animal;
but in nature-study, the observation of form is for the purpose of
better understanding life. In fact, it is form linked with life, the
relation of “being” to “doing.”
NATURE-STUDY IN THE SCHOOLROOM
[Illustration: M]
Many subjects for nature-study lessons may be brought into the
schoolroom. Whenever it is possible, the pupils should themselves
bring the material, as the collecting of it is an important part of
the lesson. There should be in the schoolroom conveniences for caring
for the little prisoners brought in from the field. The terrarium
and breeding cages, of different kinds should be provided for the
insects, toads and little mammals. Here they may live in comfort,
when given their natural food, while the children observe their
interesting ways. The ants’ nest, and the observation hive yield
fascinating views of the marvelous lives of the insect socialists,
while the cheerful prisoner in the bird cage may be made a constant
illustration of the adaptations and habits of all birds. The
aquaria for fishes, tadpoles and insects afford the opportunity for
continuous study of these water creatures and are a never-failing
source of interest to the pupils, while the window garden may be
made not only an ornament and an aesthetic delight, but a basis for
interesting study of plant growth and development.
A schoolroom thus equipped is a place of delight as well as
enlightenment to the children. Once, a boy whose luxurious home was
filled with all that money could buy and educated tastes select, said
of a little nature-study laboratory which was in the unfinished attic
of a school building, but which was teeming with life: “I think this
is the most beautiful room in the world.”
NATURE-STUDY AND MUSEUM SPECIMENS
[Illustration: T]
The matter of museum specimens is another question for the
nature-study teacher to solve, and has a direct bearing on an
attitude toward taking life. There are many who believe the stuffed
bird or the case of pinned insects have no place in nature-study;
and certainly these should not be the chief material. But let us
use our common sense; the boy sees a bird in the woods or field and
does not know its name; he seeks the bird in the museum and thus is
able to place it and read about it and is stimulated to make other
observations concerning it. Wherever the museum is a help to the
study of life in the field, it is well and good. Some teachers may
give a live lesson from a stuffed specimen, and other teachers may
stuff their pupils with facts about a live specimen; of the two, the
former is preferable.
There is no question that making a collection of insects is an
efficient way of developing the child’s powers of close observation,
as well as of giving him manual dexterity in handling fragile things.
Also it is a false sentiment which attributes to an insect the same
agony at being impaled on a pin that we might suffer at being
thrust through by a stake. The insect nervous system is far more
conveniently arranged for such an ordeal than ours; and, too, the
cyanide bottle brings immediate and painless death to the insects
placed within it; moreover, the insects usually collected have short
lives anyway. So far as the child is concerned, he is thinking of his
collection of moths or butterflies and not at all of taking life; so
it is not teaching him to wantonly destroy living creatures. However,
an indiscriminate encouragement of the making of insect collections
cannot be advised. There are some children who will profit by it
and some who will not, and unquestionably the best kind of study of
insects is watching their interesting ways while they live.
To kill a creature in order to prepare it for a nature-study lesson
is not only wrong but absurd, for nature-study has to do with life
rather than death, and the form of any creature is interesting only
when its adaptations for life are studied. But again, a nature-study
teacher may be an opportunist; if without any volition on her part or
the pupils’, a freshly killed specimen comes to hand, she should make
the most of it. The writer remembers most illuminating lessons from a
partridge that broke a window and its neck simultaneously during its
flight one winter night, a yellow hammer that killed itself against
an electric wire, and a muskrat that turned its toes to the skies
for no understandable reason. In each of these cases the creature’s
special physical adaptations for living its own peculiar life were
studied, and the effect was not the study of a dead thing, but of a
successful and wonderful life.
THE LENS, MICROSCOPE AND FIELD GLASS AS HELPS IN NATURE-STUDY
[Illustration: I]
In elementary grades, nature-study deals with objects which the
children can see with the naked eye. However, a lens is a help in
almost all of this work because it is such a joy to the child to gaze
at the wonders it reveals. There is no lesson given in this book
which requires more than a simple lens for seeing the most minute
parts discussed. An excellent lens may be bought for a dollar, and
a fairly good one for fifty cents or even twenty-five cents. The
lens should be chained to a table or desk where it may be used by
the pupils at recess. This gives each an opportunity for using it
and obviates the danger of losing it. If the pupils themselves own
lenses, they should be fastened by a string or chain to the pocket.
A microscope has no legitimate part in nature-study. But if there
is one available, it reveals so many wonders in the commonest
objects, that it can be made a source of added interest ofttimes.
For instance, to thus see the scales on the butterfly’s wing affords
the child pleasure as well as edification. Field or opera glasses,
while indispensable for bird study, are by no means necessary in
nature-study. However, the pupils will show greater interest in
noting the birds’ colors if they are allowed to make the observations
with the help of a glass.
USES OF PICTURES, CHARTS AND BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS
[Illustration: P]
Pictures alone should never be used as the subjects for nature-study
lessons, but they may be of great use in illustrating and
illuminating a lesson. Books well illustrated are more readily
comprehended by the child and are often very helpful to him,
especially after his interest in the subject is thoroughly aroused.
If charts are used to illustrate the lesson, the child is likely
to be misled by the size of the drawing, which is also the case in
blackboard pictures. However, this error may be avoided by fixing
the attention of the pupil on the object first. If the pupils are
studying the ladybird and have it in their hands, the teacher may
use a diagram representing the beetle as a foot long and it will
still convey the idea accurately; but if she begins with the picture,
she probably can never convince the children that the picture has
anything to do with the insect.
In making blackboard drawings illustrative of the lesson, it is best,
if possible, to have one of the pupils do the drawing in the presence
of the class; or, if the teacher does the drawing, she should hold
the object in her hand while doing it and look at it often so that
the children may see that she is trying to represent it accurately.
Taking everything into consideration, however, nature-study charts
and blackboard drawings are of little use to the nature-study teacher.
THE USES OF SCIENTIFIC NAMES
[Illustration: D]
Disquieting problems relative to scientific nomenclature always
confront the teacher of nature-study. My own practice has been to use
the popular names of species, except in cases where confusion might
ensue, and to use the scientific names for anatomical parts. However,
this matter is of little importance if the teacher bears in mind that
the purpose of nature-study is to know the subject under observation
and to learn the name incidentally.
If the teacher says: “I have a pink hepatica. Can anyone find me a
blue one?” the children, who naturally like grown-up words, will soon
be calling these flowers hepaticas. But if the teacher says, “These
flowers are called hepaticas. Now please everyone remember the name.
Write it in your books as I write it on the blackboard, and in half
an hour I shall ask you again what it is,” the pupils naturally look
upon the exercise as a word lesson and its real significance is lost.
This sort of nature-study is dust and ashes and there has been too
much of it. The child should never be _required_ to learn the name
of anything in the nature-study work; but the name should be used so
often and so naturally in his presence, that he will learn it without
being conscious of the process.
THE STORY AS A SUPPLEMENT TO THE NATURE-STUDY LESSON
[Illustration: M]
Many of the subjects for nature lessons can be studied only in part,
since but one phase may be available at the time. Often, especially
if there is little probability that the pupils will find opportunity
to complete the study, it is best to round out their knowledge by
reading or telling the story to supplement the facts which they
have discovered for themselves. This story should not be told as a
finality or as a complete picture but as a guide and inspiration for
further study. Always leave at the end of the story an interrogation
mark that will remain aggressive and insistent in the child’s mind.
To illustrate: Once a club of junior naturalists brought me rose
leaves injured by the leaf-cutter bee and asked me why the leaves
were cut out so regularly. I told them the story of the use made by
the mother bee of these oval and circular bits of leaves and made
the account as vital as I was able; but at the end I said, “I do not
know which species of bee cut these leaves. She is living here among
us and building her nest with your rose leaves which she is cutting
every day almost under your very eyes. Is she then so much more
clever than you that you cannot see her nor find her nest?” For two
years following this lesson I received letters from members of this
club. Two carpenter bees and their nests were discovered by them and
studied before the mysterious leaf-cutter was finally ferreted out.
My story had left something interesting for the young naturalists to
discover. The children should be impressed with the fact that the
nature story is never finished. There is not a weed nor an insect
nor a tree so common that the child, by observing carefully, may not
see things never yet recorded in scientific books; therefore the
supplementary story should be made an inspiration for keener interest
and further investigation on the part of the pupil. The supplementary
story simply thrusts aside some of the obscuring underbrush thus
revealing more plainly the path to further knowledge.
THE NATURE-STUDY ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE AND DEATH
[Illustration: P]
Perhaps no greater danger besets the pathway of the nature-study
teacher than the question involved in her pupils’ attitude toward
life and death. To inculcate in the child a reverence for life and
yet to keep him from becoming mawkish and morbid is truly a problem.
It is almost inevitable that the child should become sympathetic with
the life of the animal or plant studied, since a true understanding
of the life of any creature creates an interest which stimulates a
desire to protect this particular creature and make its life less
hard. Many times, within my own experience, have I known boys, who
began by robbing birds’ nests for egg collections, to end by becoming
most zealous protectors of the birds. The humane qualities within
these boys budded and blossomed in the growing knowledge of the lives
of the birds. At Cornell University, it is a well known fact that
those students who turn aside so as not to crush the ant, caterpillar
or cricket on the pavement are almost invariably those that are
studying entomology; and in America it is the botanists themselves
who are leading the crusade for flower protection.
Thus, the nature-study teacher, if she does her work well, is a sure
aid in inculcating a respect for the rights of all living beings to
their own lives; and she needs only to lend her influence gently
in this direction to change carelessness to thoughtfulness and
cruelty to kindness. But with this impetus toward a reverence for
life, the teacher soon finds herself in a dilemma from which there
is no logical way out, so long as she lives in a world where lamb
chop, beefsteak and roast chicken are articles of ordinary diet;
a world in fact, where every meal is based upon the death of some
creature. For if she places much emphasis upon the sacredness of
life, the children soon begin to question whether it be right to
slay the lamb or the chicken for their own food. It would seem that
there is nothing for the consistent nature-study teacher to do but
become a vegetarian, and even then there might arise refinements in
this question of taking life, she might have to consider the cruelty
to asparagus in cutting it off in plump infancy, or the ethics of
devouring in the turnip the food laid up by the mother plant to
perfect her seed. In fact, a most rigorous diet would be forced upon
the teacher who should refuse to sustain her own existence at the
cost of life; and if she should attempt to teach the righteousness
of such a diet she would undoubtedly forfeit her position; and yet
what is she to do! She will soon find herself in the position of a
certain lady who placed sheets of sticky fly-paper around her kitchen
to rid her house of flies, and then in mental anguish picked off the
buzzing, struggling victims and sought to clean their too adhesive
wings and legs.
In fact, drawing the line between what to kill and what to let live,
requires the use of common sense rather than logic. First of all, the
nature-study teacher, while exemplifying and encouraging the humane
attitude toward the lower creatures, and repressing cruelty which
wantonly causes suffering, should never magnify the terrors of death.
Death is as natural as life and the inevitable end of physical life
on our globe. Therefore, every story and every sentiment expressed
which makes the child feel that death is terrible, is wholly wrong.
The one right way to teach about death is not to emphasize it one way
or another, but to deal with it as a circumstance common to all; it
should be no more emphasized than the fact that creatures eat or fall
asleep.
Another thing for the nature-study teacher to do is to direct the
interest of the child so that it shall center upon the hungry
creature rather than upon the one which is made into the meal. It is
well to emphasize the fact that one of the conditions imposed upon
every living being in the woods and fields, is that it is entitled
to a meal when it is hungry, if it is clever enough to get it. The
child naturally takes this view of it. I remember well as a child I
never thought particularly about the mouse which my cat was eating;
in fact, the process of transmuting mouse into cat seemed altogether
proper, but when the cat played with the mouse, that was quite
another thing, and was never permitted. Although no one appreciates
more deeply than I the debt which we owe to Thompson-Seton and
writers of his kind, who have placed before the public the animal
story from the animal point of view and thus set us all to thinking,
yet it is certainly wrong to impress this view too strongly upon the
young and sensitive child. In fact, this process should not begin
until the judgment and the understanding is well developed, for we
all know that although seeing the other fellow’s standpoint is a
source of strength and breadth of mind, yet living the other fellow’s
life is, at best, an enfeebling process and a futile waste of energy.
SHOULD THE NATURE-STUDY TEACHER TEACH HOW TO DESTROY LIFE?
[Illustration: I]
It is probably within the proper scope of the nature-study teacher to
place emphasis upon the domain of man, who being the most powerful
of all animals, asserts his will as to which ones shall live in his
midst. From a standpoint of abstract justice, the stray cat has just
as much right to kill and eat the robin which builds in the vine
of my porch as the robin has to pull and eat the earthworms from
my lawn; but the place is mine, and I choose to kill the cat and
preserve the robin.
When emphasizing the domain of man, we may have to deal with
the killing of creatures which are injurious to his interests.
Nature-study may be tributary to this, in a measure, and indirectly,
but it is surely _not_ nature-study. For example, the child studies
the cabbage butterfly in all its stages, the exquisitely sculptured
yellow egg, the velvety green caterpillar, the chrysalis with its
protecting colors, the white-winged butterfly, and becomes interested
in the life of the insect. Not under any consideration, when the
attention of the child is focused on the insect, should we suggest
a remedy for it when a pest. Let the life-story of the butterfly
stand as a fascinating page of nature’s book. But later, when the
child enters on his career as a gardener, when he sets out his row of
cabbage plants and waters and cultivates them, and does his best to
bring them to maturity, along comes the butterfly, now an arch enemy,
and begins to rear her progeny on the product of his toil. Now the
child’s interest is focused on the cabbage, and the question is not
one of killing insects so much as of saving plants. In fact, there
is nothing in spraying the plants with Paris green which suggests
cruelty to innocent caterpillars, nor is the process likely to harden
the child’s sensibilities.
To gain knowledge of the life-story of insects or other creatures is
nature-study. To destroy them as pests is a part of Agriculture or
Horticulture. The one may be of fundamental assistance to the other,
but the two are quite separate and should never be confused.
THE FIELD NOTE-BOOK
A field note-book may be made a joy to the pupil and a help to the
teacher. Any kind of a blank book will do for this, except that it
should not be too large to be carried in the pocket, and it should
always have the pencil attached. To make the note-book a success the
following rules should be observed:
(a) The book should be considered the personal property of the child
and should never be criticized by the teacher except as a matter of
encouragement; for the spirit in which the notes are made, is more
important than the information they cover.
(b) The making of drawings should be encouraged for illustrating what
is observed. A graphic drawing is far better than a long description
of a natural object.
(c) The note-book should not be regarded as a part of the work in
English. The spelling, language and writing of the notes should all
be exempt from criticism.
(d) As occasion offers, outlines for observing certain plants
or animals may be placed in the note-book previous to the field
excursion so as to give definite points for the work.
(e) No child should be compelled to have a note-book.
The field note-book is a veritable gold mine for the nature-study
teacher to work, in securing voluntary and happy observations from
the pupils concerning their out-of-door interests. It is a friendly
gate which admits the teacher to a knowledge of what the child
sees and cares for. Through it she may discover where the child’s
attention impinges upon the realm of nature and thus may know where
to find the starting point for cultivating larger intelligence and a
wider interest.
[Illustration: _A page from the field note-book of a lad of fourteen
who read Thoreau and admired the books of Thompson-Seton._]
I have examined many field note-books kept by pupils in the
intermediate grades and have been surprised at their plenitude
of accurate observation and graphic illustration. These books
ranged from blank account books furnished by the family grocer up
to a quarto, the pages of which were adorned with many marginal
illustrations made in passionate admiration of Thompson-Seton’s books
and filled with carefully transcribed text, that showed the direct
influence of Thoreau. These books, of whatever quality, are precious
beyond price to their owners. And why not? For they represent what
cannot be bought or sold, personal experience in the happy world of
out-of-doors.
THE FIELD EXCURSION
[Illustration: M]
Many teachers look upon the field excursion as a precarious voyage,
steered between the Scylla of hilarious seeing too much and the
Charybdis of seeing nothing at all because of the zest which comes
from freedom in the fields and wood. This danger can be obviated if
the teacher plans the work definitely before starting, and demands
certain results.
It is a mistake to think that a half day is necessary for a field
lesson, since a very efficient field trip may be made during the
ten or fifteen minutes at recess, if it is well planned. Certain
questions and lines of investigation should be given the pupils
before starting and given in such a manner as to make them thoroughly
interested in discovering the facts. A certain teacher in New York
State has studied all the common plants and trees in the vicinity
of her school with these recess excursions and the pupils have been
enthusiastic about the work.
The half hour excursion should be preceded by a talk concerning
the purposes of the outing and the pupils must know that certain
observations are to be made or they will not be permitted to go
again. This should not be emphasized as a punishment; but they should
be made to understand that a field excursion is only, naturally
enough, for those who wish to see and understand outdoor life. For
all field work, the teacher should make use of the field note-book
which should be a part of the pupils’ equipment.
PETS AS NATURE-STUDY SUBJECTS
[Illustration: L]
Little attention has been given to making the child understand
what would be the lives of his pets if they were in their native
environment; or to relating their habits and lives as wild animals.
Almost any pet, if properly observed, affords an admirable
opportunity for understanding the reasons why its structure and
peculiar habits may have made it successful among other creatures and
in other lands.
Moreover the actions and the daily life of the pet make interesting
subject matter for a note-book. The lessons on the dog, rabbit and
horse as given in this volume may suggest methods for such study,
and with apologies that it is not better and more interesting, I
have placed with the story of the squirrel a few pages from one of
my own note-books regarding my experiences with “Furry.” I include
this record as a suggestion for the children that they should keep
note-books of their pets. It will lead them to closer observation
and to a better and more natural expression of their experiences.
THE CORRELATION OF NATURE-STUDY WITH LANGUAGE WORK
[Illustration: N]
Nature-study should be so much a part of the child’s thought and
interest that it will naturally form a thought core for other
subjects quite unconsciously on his part. In fact, there is one
safe rule for correlation in this case, it is legitimate and
excellent training as long as the pupil does not discover that he is
correlating. But there is something in human nature which revolts
against doing one thing to accomplish quite another. A boy once
said to me, “I’d rather never go on a field excursion than to have
to write it up for English,” a sentiment I sympathized with keenly;
ulterior motive is sickening to the honest spirit. But if that same
boy had been a member of a field class and had enjoyed all the new
experiences and had witnessed the interesting things discovered on
this excursion, and if later his teacher had asked him to write for
her an account of some part of it, because _she wished to know what
he had discovered_, the chances are that he would have written his
story joyfully and with a certain pride that would have counted much
for achievement in word expression.
When Mr. John Spencer, known to so many children in New York State
as “Uncle John,” was conducting the Junior Naturalist Clubs, the
teachers allowed letters to him to count for language exercises; and
the eagerness with which these letters were written should have given
the teachers the key to the proper method of teaching English. Mr.
Spencer requested the teachers not to correct the letters, because he
wished the children to be thinking about the subject matter rather
than the form of expression. But so anxious were many of the pupils
to make their letters perfect, that they earnestly requested their
teachers to help them write correctly, which was an ideal condition
for teaching them English. Writing letters to Uncle John was such a
joy to the pupils that it was used as a privilege and a reward of
merit in many schools. One rural teacher reduced the percentage of
tardiness to a minimum by giving the first period in the morning to
the work in English which consisted of letters to Uncle John.
Why do pupils dislike writing English exercises? Simply because they
are not interested in the subject they are asked to write about,
and they know that the teacher is not interested in the information
contained in the essay. But when they are interested in the subject
and write about it to a person who is interested, the conditions are
entirely changed. If the teacher, overwhelmed as she is by work and
perplexities, could only keep in mind that the purpose of a language
is, after all, merely to convey ideas, some of her perplexities would
fade away. A conveyance naturally should be fitted for the load it
is to carry, and if the pupil acquires the load first he is very
likely to construct a conveyance that will be adequate. How often the
conveyance is made perfect through much effort and polished through
agony of spirit and the load entirely forgotten!
Nature-study lessons give much excellent subject matter for
stories and essays, but these essays should never be criticized or
defaced with the blue pencil. They should be read with interest
by the teacher; the mistakes made in them, so transformed as to
be unrecognizable, may be used for drill exercises in grammatical
construction. After all, grammar and spelling are only gained by
practice and there is no royal road leading to their acquirement.
THE CORRELATION OF NATURE-STUDY AND DRAWING
[Illustration: T]
The correlation of nature-study and drawing is so natural and
inevitable that it needs never be revealed to the pupil. When the
child is interested in studying any object, he enjoys illustrating
his observations with drawings; the happy absorption of children thus
engaged is a delight to witness. At its best, drawing is a perfectly
natural method of self-expression. The savage and the young child,
both untutored, seek to express themselves and their experiences by
this means. It is only when the object to be drawn is foreign to the
interest of the child that drawing is a task.
Nature-study offers the best means for bridging the gap that lies
between the kindergarten child who makes drawings because he loves to
and is impelled to from within, and the pupil in the grades who is
obliged to draw what the teacher places before him. From making crude
and often meaningless pencil strokes, which is the entertainment of
the young child, the outlining of a leaf or some other simple and
interesting natural object, is a normal step full of interest for the
child because it is still self-expression.
Miss Mary E. Hill gives every year in the Goodyear School of
Syracuse an exhibition of the drawings made by the children in the
nature-study classes; and these are universally so excellent that
most people regard them as an exhibition from the Art Department;
and yet many of these pupils have never had lessons in drawing. They
have learned to draw because they like to make pictures of the living
objects which they have studied. One year there were many pictures of
toads in various stages in this exhibit, and although their anatomy
was sometimes awry in the pictures, yet there was a certain vivid
expression of life in their representation; one felt that the toads
could jump. Miss Hill allows the pupils to choose their own medium,
pencil, crayon, or water-color, and says that they seem to feel which
is best. For instance, when drawing the outline of trees in winter
they choose pencil, but when representing the trillium or iris they
prefer the water-color, while for bitter-sweet and crocuses they
choose the colored crayons.
It is through this method of drawing that which interests him, that
the child retains and keeps as his own, what should be an inalienable
right, a graphic method of expressing his own impressions. Too much
have we emphasized drawing as an art; it may be an art, if the one
who draws is an artist; but if he is not an artist he still has a
right to draw if it pleases him to do so. We might as well declare
that a child should not speak unless he put his words into poetry,
as to declare that he should not draw because his drawings are not
artistic.
THE CORRELATION OF NATURE-STUDY WITH GEOGRAPHY
[Illustration: L]
Life depends upon its environment. Geographical conditions and
limitations have shaped the mold into which plastic life has been
poured and by which its form has been modified. It may be easy for
the untrained mind to see how the deserts and oceans affect life.
Cattle may not roam in the former because there is nothing there for
them to eat, nor may they occupy the latter because they are not
fitted for breathing air in the water. And yet the camel can endure
thirst and live on the scant food of the desert; and the whale is
a mammal fitted to live in the sea. The question is, how are we to
impress the child with the “have to” which lies behind all these
geographical facts. If animals live in the desert they _have to_
subsist on scant and peculiar food which grows there; they _have to_
get along with little water; they _have to_ endure heat and sand
storms; they _have to_ have eyes that will not become blinded by the
vivid reflection of the sunlight on the sand; they _have to_ be of
sand color so that they may escape the eyes of their enemies or creep
upon their prey unperceived.
All these have to’s are not mere chance, but they have existed so
long that the animal, by constantly coming in contact with them, has
attained its present form and habits.
There are just as many have to’s in the stream or the pond back of
the school-house, on the dry hillside behind it or in the woods
beyond the creek as there are in desert or ocean; and when the child
gets an inkling of this fact, he has made a great step into the realm
of geography. When he realizes why water lilies can grow only in
still water that is not too deep and which has a silt bottom, and why
the cat-tails grow in swamps where there is not too much water, and
why the mullen grows in the dry pasture, and why the hepatica thrives
in the rich, damp woods, and why the daisies grow in the meadows,
he will understand that this partnership of nature and geography
illustrates the laws which govern life. Many phases of physical
geography belong to the realm of nature-study; the brook, its course,
its work or erosion and sedimentation; the rocks of many kinds, the
soil, the climate, the weather, are all legitimate subjects for
nature-study lessons.
THE CORRELATION OF NATURE-STUDY WITH HISTORY
[Illustration: T]
There are many points where nature-study impinges upon history in a
way that may prove the basis for an inspiring lesson. Many of our
weeds, cultivated plants and domestic animals have been introduced
from Europe and are a part of our colonial history; while there are
many of the most commonly seen creatures which have played their part
in the history of ancient times. For instance, the bees which gave
to man the only means available to him for sweetening his food until
the 17th century, were closely allied to the home life of ancient
peoples. The buffalo which ranged our western plains had much to do
with the life of the red man. The study of the grasshopper brings to
the child’s attention stories of the locusts’ invasion mentioned in
the Bible, and the stars which witnessed our creation and of which
Job sang and the ancients wrote, shine over our heads every night.
But the trees, through the lengthy span of their lives, cover more
history individually, than do other organisms. In glancing across
the wood-covered hills of New York one often sees there, far above
the other trees, the gaunt crowns of old white pines. Such trees
belonged to the forest primeval and may have attained the age of two
centuries; they stand there looking out over the world, relics of
another age when America belonged to the red man, and the bear and
the panther played or fought beneath them. The cedars live longer
than do the pines and the great scarlet oak may have attained the age
of four centuries before it yields to fate.
Perhaps in no other way may the attention of the pupil be turned so
naturally to past events, as through the thought that the life of
such a tree has spanned so much of human history. The life history
of one of these ancient trees should be made the center of local
history; let the pupils find when the town was first settled by the
whites and where they came from and how large the tree was then.
What Indian tribes roamed the woods before that and what animals
were common in the forest when this tree was a sapling? Thus may
be brought out the chief events in the history of the county and
township, when they were established and for whom or what they were
named; and a comparison of the present industries may be made with
those of a hundred years ago.
THE CORRELATION OF NATURE-STUDY WITH ARITHMETIC
[Illustration: T]
The arithmetical problems presented by nature-study are many; some
of them are simple and some of them are complicated, and all of
them are illumining. Seed distribution especially lends itself to
computation; a milkweed pod contains 140 seeds; there are five such
pods on one plant, each milkweed plant requires at least one square
foot of ground to grow on; how much ground would be required to grow
all of the seeds from this one plant? Or, count the seeds in one
dandelion head, multiply by the number of flower heads on the plant
and estimate how many plants can grow on a square foot, then ask
a boy how long it would take for one dandelion plant to cover his
father’s farm with its progeny; or count the blossoms on one branch
of an apple tree, later count the ripened fruit; what percentage
of blossoms matured into fruit? Measuring trees, their height and
thickness and computing the lumber they will make combines arithmetic
and geometry, and so on _ad infinitum_.
As a matter of fact, the teacher will find in almost every nature
lesson an arithmetic lesson; and when arithmetic is used in this
work, it should be vital and inherent and not “tacked on;” the pupils
should be really interested in the answers to their problems; and as
with all correlation, the success of it depends upon the genius of
the teacher.
GARDENING AND NATURE-STUDY
[Illustration: E]
Erroneously, some people maintain that gardening is nature-study;
this is not so necessarily nor ordinarily. Gardening may be a basis
for nature-study but it is rarely made so to any great extent. Even
the work in children’s gardens is so conducted that the pupils know
little or nothing of the flowers or vegetables which they grow except
their names, their uses to man and how to cultivate them. They are
taught how to prepare the soil, but the reason for this from the
plant’s standpoint is never revealed; and if the child becomes
acquainted with the plants in his garden, he makes the discovery by
himself. All this is nothing against gardening! It is a wholesome
and valuable experience for a child to learn how to make a garden
even if he remains ignorant of the interesting facts concerning
the plants which he there cultivates. But if the teachers are so
inclined, they may find in the garden and its products, the most
interesting material for the best of nature lessons. Every plant
the child grows is an individual with its own peculiarities as well
as those of its species in manner of growth. Its roots, stems and
leaves are of certain form and structure; and often the special uses
to the plant of its own kind of leaves, stems and roots are obvious.
Each plant has its own form of flower and even its own tricks for
securing pollination; and its own manner of developing and scattering
its seeds. Every weed of the garden has developed some special
method of winning and holding its place among the cultivated plants;
and in no other way may the child so fully and naturally come into
a comprehension of that term “the survival of the fittest” as by
studying the ways of the fit as exemplified in the triumphant weeds
of his garden.
Every earthworm working below the soil is doing something for the
garden. Every bee that visits the flowers there is on an errand for
the garden as well as for herself. Every insect feeding on leaf or
root is doing something to the garden. Every bird that nests near by
or that ever visits it, is doing something which affects the life
and the growth of the garden. What all of these uninvited guests
are doing is one field of garden nature-study. Aside from all this
study of individual life in the garden which even the youngest child
may take part in, there are the more advanced lessons on the soil.
What kind of soil is it? From what sort of rock was it formed? What
renders it mellow and fit for the growing of plants? Moreover, what
do the plants get from it? How do they get it? What do they do with
what they get?
This leads to the subject of plant physiology, the elements of which
may be taught simply by experiments carried on by the children
themselves, experiments which should demonstrate the sap currents
in the plant; the use of water to carry food and in making the
plant rigid; the use of sunshine in making the plant food in the
leaf laboratories; the nourishment provided for the seed and its
germination, and many other similar lessons.
A child who makes a garden, and thus becomes intimate with the plants
he cultivates, and comes to understand the interrelation of the
various forms of life which he finds in his garden, has progressed
far in the fundamental knowledge of nature’s ways as well as in a
practical knowledge of agriculture.
NATURE-STUDY AND AGRICULTURE
[Illustration: L]
Luckily, thumb-rule agriculture is being pushed to the wall in these
enlightened days. Thumb rules would work much better if nature
did not vary her performances in such a confusing way. Government
experiment stations were established because thumb rules for
farming were unreliable and disappointing; and all the work of all
the experiment stations has been simply advanced nature-study and
its application to the practice of agriculture. Both nature-study
and agriculture are based upon the study of life and the physical
conditions which encourage or limit life; this is known to the world
as the study of the natural sciences; and if we see clearly the
relation of nature-study to science, we may understand better the
relation of nature-study to agriculture, which is based upon the
sciences.
Nature-study is science brought home. It is a knowledge of botany,
zoology and geology as illustrated in the dooryard, the corn-field or
the woods back of the house. Some people have an idea that to know
these sciences one must go to college; they do not understand that
nature has furnished the material and laboratories on every farm in
the land. Thus, by beginning with the child in nature-study we take
him to the laboratory of the wood or garden, the roadside or the
field, and his materials are the wild flowers or the weeds, or the
insects that visit the golden-rod or the bird that sings in the maple
tree, or the woodchuck whistling in the pasture. The child begins
to study living things anywhere or everywhere, and his progress is
always along the various tracks laid down by the laws of life, along
which his work as an agriculturist must always progress if it is to
be successful.
The child through nature-study learns the way a plant grows, whether
it be an oak, a turnip or a pigweed; he learns how the roots of each
is adapted to its needs; how the leaves place themselves to get the
sunshine and why they need it; and how the flowers get their pollen
carried by the bee or wind; and how the seeds are finally scattered
and planted. Or he learns about the life of the bird, whether it be a
chicken, an owl or a bobolink; he knows how each bird gets its food
and what its food is, where it lives, where it nests and its relation
to other living things. He studies the bumblebee and discovers its
great mission of pollen carrying for many flowers, and in the end
would no sooner strike it dead than he would voluntarily destroy his
clover patch. This is the kind of learning we call nature-study and
not science or agriculture. But the country child can never learn
anything in nature-study that has not something to do with science;
and that has not its own practical lesson for him, when he shall
become a farmer.
Some have argued, “Why not make nature-study along the lines of
agriculture solely? Why should not the child begin nature-study with
the cabbage rather than the wild flowers?” This argument carried out
logically provides recreation for a boy in hoeing corn rather than in
playing ball. Many parents in the past have argued thus and have, in
consequence, driven thousands of splendid boys from the country to
the city with a loathing in their souls for the drudgery which seemed
all there was to farm life. The reason why the wild flowers may be
selected for beginning the nature-study of plants, is because every
child loves these woodland posies, and his happiest hours are spent
in gathering them. Never yet have we known of a case where a child
having gained his knowledge of the way a plant lives through studying
the plants he loves, has failed to be interested and delighted to
find that the wonderful things he discovered about his wild flower
may be true of the vegetable in the garden, or the purslane which
fights with it for ground to stand upon.
Some have said, “We, as farmers, care only to know what concerns our
pocket-books; we wish only to study those things which we must, as
farmers, cultivate or destroy. We do not care for the butterfly, but
we wish to know the plum weevil; we do not care for the trillium but
we are interested in the onion; we do not care for the meadow-lark
but we cherish the gosling.” This is an absurd argument since it is
a mental impossibility for any human being to discriminate between
two things when he knows or sees only one. In order to understand the
important economic relations to the world of one plant or animal, it
is absolutely necessary to have a wide knowledge of other plants and
animals. One might as well say, “I will see the approaching cyclone,
but never look at the sky; I will look at the clover but not see the
dandelion; I will look for the sheriff when he comes over the hill
but will not see any other team on the road.”
Nature-study is an effort to make the individual use his senses
instead of losing them; to train him to keep his eyes open to all
things so that his powers of discrimination shall be based on wisdom.
The ideal farmer is not the man who by hazard and chance succeeds; he
is the man who loves his farm and all that surrounds it because he is
awake to the beauty as well as to the wonders which are there; he is
the man who understands as far as may be the great forces of nature
which are at work around him, and therefore, he is able to make them
work for him. For what is agriculture save a diversion of natural
forces for the benefit of man! The farmer who knows these forces only
when restricted to his paltry crops, and has no idea of their larger
application, is no more efficient as a farmer than would a man be as
an engineer who knew nothing of his engine except how to start and
stop it.
In order to appreciate truly his farm, the farmer must needs begin
as a child with nature-study; in order to be successful and make
the farm pay, he must needs continue in nature-study; and to make
his declining years happy, content, full of wide sympathies and
profitable thought, he must needs conclude with nature-study; for
nature-study is the alphabet of agriculture and no word in that great
vocation may be spelled without it.
NATURE-STUDY CLUBS
[Illustration: T]
The organizing of a club by the pupils for the purpose of studying
out-of-door life, is a great help and inspiration to the work in
nature-study in the classroom. The essays and the talks before the
club, prove efficient aid in English composition; and the varied
interests of the members of the club, furnish new and vital material
for study. A button or a badge may be designed for the club and, of
course, it must have constitution and by-laws. The proceedings of the
club meetings should be conducted according to parliamentary rules;
but the field excursions should be entirely informal.
The meetings of the Junior Naturalists Clubs, as organized in
the schools of New York State by Mr. John W. Spencer, were most
impressive. The school session would be brought to a close, the
teacher stepping down and taking a seat with the pupils. The
president of the club, some bashful boy or slender slip of a
girl would take the chair and conduct the meeting with a dignity
and efficiency worthy of a statesman. The order was perfect, the
discussion much to the point. I confess to a feeling of awe when I
attended these meetings, conducted so seriously and so formally,
by such youngsters. Undoubtedly, the parliamentary training and
experience in speaking impromptu, are among the chief benefits of
such a club.
These clubs may be organized for special study. In one bird club of
which I know there have been contests. Sides were chosen and the
number of birds seen from May 1st to 31st inclusive was the test of
supremacy. Notes on the birds were taken in the field with such care,
that when at the end of the month each member handed in his notes,
they could be used as evidence of accurate identification. An umpire
with the help of bird manuals decided the doubtful points. This year
the score stood 79 to 81.
The programs of the nature club should be varied so as to be
continually interesting. Poems and stories, concerning the objects
studied, help make the program attractive.
[Illustration]
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
[Illustration: F]
First and indispensably, the teacher should have at hand the subject
of the lesson. She should make herself familiar with the points
covered by the questions and read the story before giving the lesson.
If she does not have the time to go over the observations suggested,
before giving the lesson, she should take up the questions with the
pupils as a joint investigation, and be boon companion in discovering
the story.
The story should not be read to the pupils. It is given as an
assistance to the teacher, and is not meant for direct information
to the pupils. If the teacher knows a fact in nature’s realm, she
is then in a position to lead her pupils to discover this fact for
themselves.
Make the lesson an investigation and make the pupils feel that they
are investigators. To tell the story to begin with, inevitably spoils
this attitude and quenches interest.
The “leading thought” embodies some of the points which should be in
the teacher’s mind while giving the lesson; it should not be read or
declared to the pupils.
The outlines for observations herein given, by no means cover all of
the observations possible; they are meant to suggest to the teacher
observations of her own, rather than to be followed slavishly.
The suggestions for observations have been given in the form
of questions, merely for the sake of saving space. The direct
questioning method, if not employed with discretion, becomes tiresome
to both pupil and teacher. If the questions do not inspire the child
to investigate, they are useless. To grind out answers to questions
about any natural object is not nature-study, it is simply “grind,” a
form of mental activity which is of much greater use when applied to
spelling or the multiplication table than to the study of nature. The
best teacher will cover the points suggested for observations with
few direct questions. To those who find the questions inadequate I
will say that, although I have used these outlines once, I am sure I
should never be able to use them again without making changes.
The topics chosen for these lessons may not be the most practical nor
the most interesting nor the most enlightening that are to be found;
they are simply those subjects which I have used in my classes,
because we happened to find them at hand the mornings the lessons
were given.
While an earnest attempt has been made to make the information in
this book accurate, it is to be expected and to be hoped that many
discrepancies will be found by those who follow the lessons. No
two animals or plants are just alike, and no two people see things
exactly the same way. The chief aim of this volume is to encourage
investigation rather than to give information. Therefore, if mistakes
are found, the object of the book will have been accomplished, and
the author will feel deeply gratified. If the teacher finds that
the observations made by her and her pupils, do not agree with the
statements in the book, I earnestly enjoin upon her to trust to her
own eyes rather than to any book.
No teacher is expected to teach all the lessons in this book. A wide
range of subjects is given, so that congenial choice may be made.