NA 1URE STUDY A Justification for Such Work.
All teach ers will undoubtedly concede that there are thr ee great sources of knowledge : Books, people and things. Am ple provision is made for the gaining of information from books in our schools. We are coming more and mor e to a ppreciate that much can be gained by ac quaintan ce with people a s well as with books. The thir d source, h owever, is used sca rcely more than in an incidental w ay. Yet, is t here any good reason why this, ooc first tea cher , should be almost wholly ignored? Tr ue, an a tt em pt is made to study t hings in a ll laboratory subjects in our hig h schools. But in m a ny of these, much is made of t ext book instruction, with only a minor place f or first hand inquiry. It is the contention of the following page~ t hat fi r st hand inquiry is just as adaptable to grade c1-ildren as t o t he m ore a dvanced. It is urged that th e book, which in so many cases is a barrier between the child and reality, be t a ken awa y for a time and the child brought fa ce to f a ce with the obj ect of study. Is it too mu ch to ask t hat every pupil in our public schools attain t o as ready a f a cility in finding out things from n ature as 路 either fro m books or men? \Vays of T e a ch ing Na t u re Stu dy
There are various sch em es offer ed for working nature study into the curriculum. Quite in line with the old ide a of a Se.J~rate recit ation for ever y subject, is the plan for bavirg o:1e p eriod every d a y f or every gr a de set r eligious'v 1 路 路 asr路c1e, cacr ed t o th e ca use of nature stu dy.