example, to be able to recognize many plants and to call them by
name is no doubt something of an accomplishment, but it should not be
the chief aim of the teacher in conducting Nature Study lessons on
plants. It is of much greater importance that the child should be led to
love the flowers and to appreciate their beauty and their utility. Such
appreciation will result in the desire to protect and to produce fine
flowers and useful plants, and this end can be reached only through
intelligent acquaintanceship. There can be no true appreciation without
knowledge, and this the child gets chiefly by personal observation and
experiment. With reference to the wild flowers of the woods and fields,
the method employed is that of continuous observation.

ORDER OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE LESSON

Each animal or plant should be studied as a living, active organism. The
attention of the pupils should be focused upon activities; for these
appeal to the child nature and afford the best means for securing
interest and attention. What does this animal do? How does it do it? How
is it fitted for doing this? How does this plant grow? What fits it for
growing in this way? These are questions which should exercise the mind
of the child. They are questions natural in the spirit of inquiry in
child nature and give vitality to nature teaching. They are an effective
means of establishing a bond of sympathy between the child and nature.
The child who takes care of a plant or animal because it is his own,
does so at first from a purely personal motive, which is perfectly
natural to childhood; but while he studies its needs and observes its
movements and changes, gradually and unconsciously this interest will be
transferred to the plant or animal for its own sake. The nature of the
child is thus broadened during the process.

PROBLEMS IN OBSERVATION

In studying the material provided, whether it be in the class-room, or
during a nature excursion, or by observations made in the farmyard at
home, the teacher must guide the efforts of the pupils by assigning to
them definite and suitable problems. Care must be taken to reach the
happy mean of giving specific directions without depriving the pupils of
the pleasure of making original discovery. For example, instead of
asking them to study the foot of the horse and learn all they can about
it, more specific problems should be assigned, such as: Observe how the
hoof is placed on the ground in walking. What