The Delawarean., 1900-06-30

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session, three weeks, $40. For less
time than three weeks, 81 per week
Th expenses of teacher while in
Dover need not exceed 500 for the en-
tire session.
Outline of Nature Study Principles.
One of the most important efforts
in modern education seeks to interest
the boy and girl in the things they
most often need in every day life. The
old training came out of the arithme-
tic, reader, grammar, geography and
speller, and seldom extended beyond
the confines of the covers; the new in
cludes the best of the old and endeav-
ors to enrich the life of the child by
showing him the pleasure that springs
from an intimate acquaintance with
his surroundings.
This kind of study has been aptly
termed, Mature Study" 1t is not the
study of botany, geology, chemistry
physics or animal life. 1t embraces a
sympathetic inspection of the common
est things in the environment, which
in their revelation make life sweeter
and deeper, and often more profitable
and only when Systematically arranged
form the science of these subjects. Its
not necessarily orderly or progressive
1t differs distinctly from the teaching
of science in that its ultimate aim
is to enlarge the sympathies of the
child, while in science-teaching the
development of the subject is promi-
nent.
The wisdom of the nature study
movement is conceded and encouraged
by leading educators throughout the
country. 1t is universally commended
from its purely educational nature;
and when encouraged in rural COM
munities is frought with the highest
patriotic motives in that it endeavors
to educate natureward those whose
lives are destined to be spent on the
farm.
The most comprehensive and sug-
gestive outline of nature study princi-
Piles the writer has seen is that by
Professor Bailey, chief of the Nature
Study Bureau at Cornell University,
whose efforts more than any other, the
movement has been given such wide
spread interest, and often state recog-
milton and aid. Bailey says:
/ The proper objects of nature-study
are the things which one oftenest
meets To-day it is a stone; to-mor-
row it is twig, bird, an insect, a
leaf, a flower. The child or even the
high school pupil, is first interested in
things which do not need to be ana
lyzed or changed into unusual forms
or problems. Therefore, problems of
chemistry and of physics are for the
most part unsuited to early lessons in
nature-study. Moving things, as birds,
insects and mammals, interest children
most and therefore seem to be the
proper subjects for nature-study; but
1t IS often difficult to secure specimens
when wanted, especially in liberal
quantity, and still more difficult to see
the objects in perfectly natural con-
ditions. Plants are more easily had.
and are therefore more practicable for
the purpose, although animals and
minerals should by no means be ex-
cluded.
IF the objects to be studied are in
formal, the methods of teaching should
be the same. If nature-study were
made stated part of curriculum, its
purpose would be defeated. The chief
est difficulty with our present school
methods is the necessary formality of
the courses and the hours. Tasks are
set, and tasks are always hard. The
only way to teach nature-study is,
with no course laid out, to bring in
whatever object may be handy and to
set the pupils to looking at it. The
pupils do the work,-they see the thing
and explain its structure and it's mean
ing. The exercise should not be long.
not to exceed fifteen minutes at any
time, and, above all things, the pupil
should never look upon it as a recita-
tion, and there should never be an ex-
animation. Tt should come as a rest
exercise, whenever the pupils become
llstless. Ten minutes day, for one
term, of a short, sharp and spicy OBJ
servation upon plants, for example. is
worth more than whole textbook of
botany.
1.-The teacher should studiously avoid
definitions, and the setting of patterns.
The old idea of the model flower is a
pernicious one, simply because it does
not exist in nature. The model flower,
the complete leaf, and the like, are in
ferences, and pupils should always be-
gin with things and not with ideas.
In other words, the ideas should be