Handbook of Nature-Study, Part 1

Description

PART I



THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY



WHAT NATURE-STUDY IS



Nature-study is, despite all discussions and perversions, a study of nature; it con- sists 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 har- monious whole. Therefore, the object of the nature-study teacher should be to cul- tivate in the children powers of accurate observation and to build up within them understanding.

WHAT NATURE-STUDY SHOULD DO FOR THE CHILD



First, but not most important, nature- study gives the child practical and help- ful knowledge. It makes him familiar with nature’s ways and forces, so that he is not so helpless in the presence of natural mis- fortune and disasters.

Nature-study cultivates the child’s im- agination, since there are so many wonder- ful 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 per- ception 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 in expression of things as they are.

Nature-study cultivates in the child a ove 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.
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