Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-07-29
ELEM ENTARY NATURAL
SCIENCE.

Can the natural Sciences be proftably
taught to the average pupil in our pub
lie schools ? Our first inquiry leads us
to distinguish between the natural and
the artificial studies to which the chill
dren are introduced.
The child's mind is an instrument for
acquiring rather than using knowledge.
He voluntarily begins the study of ma
ture. Here he goes to school long be.
fore his parents send him. He touches
with child hand many forces, and tries
to grasp them. His studies are natural,
for they arc in the order of his mental
development. Study is play, play is
study. The objective part Of mathemat-
les unfolds to him the shape and num-
bers of things. He begins physics with
the weight of his toy, or watching the
ripple and dash of brook, or the whirl
of the water-wheel. He opens his bota-
ny when he plucks flower, distinguish
ing color and form. He notices the ma
terial of rocks, and gathers varied stones
like jealous mineralogist.
A child confined as most of our pu-
pills are to the reading, writing and
arithmetic method of dicipline, might as
well be brought up in desert as in the
world of beauty and power that surround
him. His eyes are gradually closed to
thousand alluring truths; his ears are
dulled to the myriad voices of nature.
It is Just inference from these consid-
erations, and an acknowledged fact, that,
to majority of pupils in the public
schools, the acquiring of knowledge is
uninteresting and positively irksome.
But right teaching requires that the
child's powers of knowing accurately
should be developed, and hence should
begin and largely continue with his
senses. Words and numbers, over which
so much time is spent in reading, SPELL
ing and arithmetical problems, are val
liable to his mental development, as they
are associated with things really known.
Hence the elements Of science furnish
the proper material for such study.
knowledge is not power to the child, if
it is abstract. He cannot use knowledge
which lies beyond the sphere of his daily
observation and experience. What the
State needs is intelligent citizens, and
intelligent youths from whom they can
be made. These come of the power Of
knowing and judging accurately We
claim for the Natural Sciences this ef-
feet on the child. They deal with facts
more sensible than those of arithmetic.
The parts of leaf or a flower are defn-
ite, easily comprehended, and classified
with certainty. This is true of the ma
ture and species of the common animals
shells and insects, the constituents of 6
stone, the qualities of an acid or gas
the history of a rock traced in forms Of
life, the nature and effect even of geo
logical changes.
No wide range of knowledge is re
quired to understand definitely and sure
| ly scientific facts simply presented tt
the youthful mind. 1t easily compre
hends them as a whole. We claim
therefore, that to whatever degree tn,
reasoning faculties should be developed
to furnish the child-mind with power
this is best secured by its reasoning OF
facts and things rather than on .iNeas o
the Imagination, or history, or morals
to which children's studies are usually
confined. The last knowledge gained
by man is the correct understanding o
human nature, or the causes of human
actions. The sciences teach the relations
of cause and effect in their clearest man
ifestations. With enlarged comprehen
sion the child may learn the secondar,
character of causes. He will trace thei
relation to effects with the certainty 0
conviction to his mind. Thence will b
impaired the element of positiyeness t
the pupils requirements and habits 0
character. He learns to act unwaver
inglY on what he knows, and to know
positively that upon which he acts
Correcting by his own observations tn
conclusions to which he is led by th
inductlve methods of science, he gain
independence in thought with that con
idence in his own powers of judging
which are the safeguards in his charac
ter and of his rights as freeman unde
our republican institutions.
Thus early introduced to the element
of science, the foundations of his char
acter as citizen are more broadly laid
The child becomes more excursive il
thought, more inventive through famil
iarity with the mechanism of nature
and more appreciative of the wealth an
beauty of his country's resources
Taught to observe, he never ceases t
be affected by the changing lines an
hues in nature which his daily visio
embraces, and the elements of tru
esthetic culture find place in him whic
will add to his certain worth and powe
as a citizen. The old idea that know
edge is for discipline is faithfully main