Any form of education which leaves one less able to meet every-day
emergencies and occurrences is unbalanced and vicious, and will
lead any people to destruction.
Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, waterbugs,
tadpoles, frogs, mud-turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries,
acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade in,
water-lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals
to pet, hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes,
huckleberries, and hornets; and any child who has been deprived of
these has been deprived of the best part of his education.
By being well acquainted with all these they come into most
intimate harmony with nature, whose lessons are, of course,
natural and wholesome.
A fragrant beehive or a plump, healthy hornet's nest in good
running order often become object lessons of some importance. The
inhabitants can give the child pointed lessons in punctuation, as
well as caution and some of the limitations as well as the grand
possibilities of life; and by even a brief experience with a good
patch of healthy nettles, the same lesson will be still further
impressed upon them. And thus by each new experience with homely
natural objects the child learns self-respect and also to respect
the objects and forces which must be met.
The wild gardens of Nature are the best kindergartens. The child who
breathes the pure air among the pines, and plays among the birds and
flowers, has the greatest of advantages. The child stirred with ideal
hopes to-day will create nobly to-morrow. Children from Nature's Book
and School stand highest in the examinations of life and carry life's
richest treasures: health, individuality, sincerity, wholesome
self-reliance, and efficiency. Touched with nature, they are natural
and, like Tiny Tim, they love everybody. Nature wins the heart of
childhood. Children playing and dreaming in outdoor fairylands make
one of the sweetest, dearest stories lived or learned on Nature's
loving breast.
One of the best lessons gained from the wholesome atmosphere of the
Parks is the duty of preserving natural beauties. We need Parks to
prevent the extermination of our friends the wild flowers. A few years
ago the following simple appeal for the wild flowers was written for
me by Maud Gardner Odel:--
What will you with our bodies,
Rude Ravishers of flowers,
Despoiler of our loveliness
To please your idle hours?
The life you pluck so gayly
Will perish in a day;
The form you praise so lightly,
Turn swiftly to decay;
But leave us on our hillside
With wind and bird and bee,
Insure us our inheritance
Of immortality,--
Your sons shall know our fragrance,
Your daughters feel our charm.
Oh, Friend of Future Ages,
Do not the Wild Flowers harm!
Columbine,
Gentian,
Iris, and Others.
Photographs made in National Parks could be used in homes, schools,
hotels, etc.; they might well displace many of the pictures now in
use. These photographs should embrace the grander scenes and the
lovelier landscapes. Among the subjects handled would be the Big
Trees, Yellowstone Falls, Yosemite Falls, the Grand Cañon, wild
flowers and glaciers on Mount Rainier, the lakes in Glacier National
Park, timber-line in the Rocky Mountain National Park, Crater Lake,
and the ruins in the Mesa Verde. Among the animals pictured would be
the grizzly bear, the mountain sheep, the mountain goat, the antelope,
and the beaver; among the birds, the water-ouzel, the solitaire, the
cañon wren, the eagle, the hummingbird, and the ptarmigan.
We need to know our country. Purposeful travel is educational. Our
National Parks should stimulate travel, and a trip to them is an
educational advantage to any one making it. One can hardly be
especially interested in any single feature of these Parks without
also becoming acquainted with others.
Each year every city should honor itself by sending a number of
individuals to study one or more of these Parks. Each school should
send its brightest pupil; chambers of commerce might send
representatives; women's clubs, D.A.R. organizations, and even the
Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. might well be represented in such a delegation.
This custom would give us nation-wide knowledge and sympathy.
It appears impossible to exaggerate the importance of knowing our
wilderness lands--the frontier of yesterday.
During all the years--the long centuries between cave and cottage--our
good ancestors ever traveled among Nature's inspiring pictured scenes.
With interest and with awe they watched the silent movements of the
clouds across the sky; they heard with speechless wonder the
mysterious echo that lived and mimicked in the viewless air; they
puzzled over the strange, invisible wind that shook the excited trees
and whispered in the rustling grass. They saw the wondrous sunrise;
the light of day; the darkness; the fireflies in the forest; the
lonely, changing moon. They heard the echoing crash of thunder.
Lightning,--the branched golden river in the cloud mountains of the
sky,--the clouds themselves, and the silken rainbow, were woven into
beautiful myths. Thus, through changing seasons and the passing years,
these splendid facts and fancies in Mother Nature's school fired the
imagination with poetic wonder-tales and built the brain for our
restless, triumphant race. The pathway to the Heroic Age lies out with
Nature.