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time was spring, the recitation period, the last in the afternoon. The grammars were laid aside. Each boy, instead of a grammar lesson, was assigned a bird: one the robin, another the jay bird, another the sparrow, and so on. The boys were dismissed at the beginning of the recitation period to study their lesson. The getting out before close of school,-that part of the scheme appealed to them you may be sure. They were required to spend the time watching and taking notes upon the bird assigned in its native haunts. The class convened once or twice a week to hear the written reports read. These compositions were rendered grammatically correct, the greater part of the criticisms being made by the class. At first some of the members took little interest, but when some others read stories that attracted the attention of the whole school, they, too, went to work. The nest-building stories and narratives concerning the feeding of the young required hours of patient observation. These boys began to spend their Saturdays in the woods, students of nature, away from the contamination of the street. At the end of the term they had a practical knowledge of grammar not gained by committing all the rules of syntax.

Every ambitious teacher racks her brain to find subjects of proper benefit for the morning exercises. The migration of birds could be. made to furnish an almost unlimited series. Beginning with the fall, the teacher can ask the children what birds they saw flying south that morning. The first hand up may say a flock of blackbirds; then the blackbird can be the theme for the morning. Find out what each one knows about the blackbird: the different colors of the various kinds, their manner of flight, the nesting habits, various mating calls and songs, all information to be gained from the volunteers in the school. Each morning during the migratory season other birds will be reported until the migration is over. Each bird can be treated along the same general plan. Many questions will arise which cannot be answered at that time. Have them recorded, to be answered, if possible, the following spring. At the close of the migratory season an answer may be sought to the question, "Why do birds migrate?"

The leaves will now be off the trees, and this is the proper

time to study birds' nests, for the eggs are gone and the birds are through with the nests, though the nests are still as good as new. They can be collected and brought to the school, and examined, compared, and contrasted. The names of the birds that built some of the nests may not be known. These can be laid aside to be compared with nests the birds are building the following spring. I know of a district school where the location of all the birds' nests in the vicinity are charted at this season of the year. It is especially noted what birds always build high, and what build low, and whether the same species choose annually the same location. Charts of this character, carefully prepared by the same school for several consecutive years, would become a contribution to ornithology. Follow this by a study of the winter birds, those that we have with us always. In what respects do they differ from the migratory birds? using one bird as a topic in securing all information the pupils have obtained from their outdoor study of this bird. A teacher can suggest other things that would be of interest to note, and so lead them on. The pupils will now be anxiously waiting the return of the birds they saw flying south in the fall. Some boy or girl will be the first to exultingly proclaim sight of the first robin; and probably nests will be built before school is out, and the year's morning exercises will have been spent profitably for both teacher and pupil.

A Mason fruit jar, half full of water, situated on the teacher's desk, was the place where a tadpole spent its life. This immature frog was the special charge of the physiology class. By offering it every conceivable form of food they ascertained what it liked best. At every intermission members of the class could be found around that jar discussing the appearance of the limbs, first the hind, then the fore. The tail was an object of great interest. What was to become of it? Would it be dropped or absorbed? And then one day they discovered that this animal had ceased to be exclusively aquatic; that it needs must live a part of the time out of the water on the land.

A girl in one of the more advanced classes, but without previous training in zoology, was told to observe in her walks to and from school and around her home the grasshoppers in the grass

and then those dwelling in the roads and bare exposed places. Without further suggestion she was asked to write upon their colors. After describing the places of observation and kinds of grasshoppers found, there being green grasshoppers in the grass and brown ones in the bare exposed places, she observes that grasshoppers usually stay at places resembling their bodies in color. This shows," she says, "that the animal has the power of telling the color of objects." "This serves," she continues, "to protect the grasshoppers from snakes, birds, and even from people, as in their color they are so nearly like the objects around them that we ourselves can hardly see them.”

It has been my experience that in many respects insect life affords the best material for school studies. A lamp chimney placed upright in a box of dirt is the mode of breeding cage in general use. Here caterpillars will grow and molt in the fall. They will transform to chrysalids to hold the attention. With anticipation the spring emergence will be awaited. At the proper time the teacher can procure eggs of the silkworm moth for the asking. The osage orange will furnish food for the caterpillars. Every stage in growth and development can be noted, and when the cocoon is spun the pupils are ready to inquire into the nature of silk and the manner of silk making.

Collections of insect forms by scholars during the summer months furnish valuable material for language work or freehand drawing as well as a reserve fund for general exercises. Did you ever establish an ant's nest in the schoolroom? If you have not, do so, and rely upon a copy of Lubbock for suggestions.

Then there are the rich opportunities afforded in tramps across the fields and through the woods with members of your school for companions. The rural school teacher, whether on prairie or in woodland, excels in the equipment of her natural history laboratory.

Before leaving the question of how, I must tell you of another way, a plan used by a well-known teacher. His chosen field was literature. Natural science was assigned to him because there was no one else to take it. Under such circumstances many a teacher would have slighted the subject. On the contrary this teacher formed his students into a natural history club. They

met on stated evenings, the members making excursions and observations in the meantime, reporting their results at these meetings. This occurred some fifteen years ago. I have taken occasion to make some inquiry into the pursuits of its members, and find that a majority of them in whatever vocation now engaged have continued their interest and study in some phase of nature. Some have chosen this field as their life work.

2. What is there in the study of animal life capable of furnishing certain fundamental disciplines not readily obtained in other subjects?

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The instances just cited illustrate the intent of the study, "direct observational appeal to natural phenomena." Much skill should be exercised by the teacher in the selection of such subjects for study "as shall really be within reach of the pupils' own observation and understanding." In accordance with the ability of the scholars, scientific methods should be introducedobservations, generalization, comparisons, deduction, experimentation, development of critical and unprejudiced judgment in forming conclusions. Such methods will be inculcated more by example than by precept. Let the subject be presented from the disciplinary, not the sentimental point of view. A test of results will be shown in the desire and ability of the pupil to carry the study further. These are the sentiments of Prof. W. M. Davis, recently expressed concerning nature study in general. They apply equally well to the subject in hand.

In every phase of this work there must be the same seriousness of thought and purpose which has so long characterized instruction in mathematics. The pupils are to be assigned problems that will require in their solution exertion equal to that called into play by any other school task. Under the head of nature study there has been a tendency to treat of generalities, to glance at the superficial, and pass on. To such an extent has this been carried on that it is sometimes justly queried, "What is nature study?"

It is quite possible that some of our teachers do not feel themselves capable of conducting work along these lines. To such

3. Science, N. S. Vol. XVI, p. 911, December 5, 1902.

Froebel says: "Let not the teacher of a country school object that he knows nothing about natural objects, not even their names. Even if he has had the scantiest education, by a diligent observation of nature he may gain a deeper and more thorough, more living, intrinsic, and extrinsic knowledge of natural objects in their diversity and individuality than he can acquire from ordinary available books."4

The successful teacher is well grounded in the subject. He does not use his fund, however, as a free gift, but as a means to enable him to make fitting suggestions which will lead the pupil to discover the facts. I would not have you understand that the teacher is to get all his knowledge secondhand. The literature at hand serves simply as a guide to enable him to work out in the field the course he proposes to give his school. In order to do this work well and thoroughly it is not necessary for the teacher to become familiar with every phase of animal life. Become proficient in those forms that are accessible. This should be the invariable rule. To serve its purpose the study of animal life in the common schools is essentially a study of things, not books. The study of marine life can never be properly conducted away from the seashore, nor tropical life well presented in the temperate zone. One class of pupils may study one set of animal forms, another class an entirely different set with equal benefit. Huxley in his introduction to the study of the crayfish, says: "I have desired to show how the careful study of one of the commonest and most insignificant animals leads us, step by step, from every-day knowledge to the widest generalization and the most difficult problems of zoology, and indeed of biological science in general." I am fully aware that the teacher's preparation is a most important factor in the proper conduct of the work. Though the teachers may not yet be fully equal to the occasion they soon will be. The most advanced specialist really knows only a little about a comparatively few animals. It was not so long ago that Latin in the high school met opposition because of want of teachers properly equipped. To-day this is one of the best taught subjects in the schools.

The trend of education is for action, not imitation. In sub

4. Education of Man, p. 201.

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