eedom to come and
go and do whatever he wished.

Truancies and runaways are the result of original tendencies and desires
expressing themselves in spite of training, perhaps sometimes because of
the lack of training. In childhood and youth these original tendencies
should, to some extent, be satisfied in legitimate ways. Excursions and
picnics can be planned both for work and for play. If the child's
desires and needs can be satisfied in legitimate ways, then he will not
have to satisfy them illegitimately. The teaching itself can be done
better by following, to some extent, the lead of the child's nature.
Much early education consists in learning the world. Now, most of the
world is out of doors and the child must go out to find it. The teacher
should make use of the natural desires of the children to wander and
explore, as a means of educating them. The school work should be of such
a nature that much outdoor work will need to be done.

_Collecting._ It is in the nature of children to seize and, if possible,
carry away whatever attracts attention. This tendency is the basis of
what is called the collecting instinct. If one will take a walk with a
child, one can observe the operation of the collecting tendency,
particularly if the walk is in the fields and woods. The child will be
observed to take leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, nuts, pebbles, and in
fact everything that is loose or can be gotten loose. They are taken at
first aimlessly, merely because they attract attention. The original,
natural response of the child toward that which attracts attention is
usually to get it, get possession of it and take it along. It is easy to
see why such tendencies were developed in man. In his savage state it
was highly useful for him to do this. He must always have been on the
lookout for things which could be used as food or as weapons. He had to
do this to live. But one need not take a child to the woods to observe
this tendency. One can go to the stores. Till a child is trained not to
do it, he seizes and takes whatever attracts attention.

Just as the wandering tendencies can be used for the benefit of the
child, so can the collecting tendencies. Not only should the children
make expeditions to learn of the world, but specimens should be
collected so that they can be used to form a museum at the school which
will represent the surrounding locality. Geological, geographical,
botanical, and zooelogical specimens should be co