Nature Study and Related Subjects for the Common Schools Volume 1

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1898 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. NATURE STUDY FOR OCTOBER. It not uufrequeutly happens that teachers fail in part in their work in nature study because they do not clearly comprehend the character of the mental process involved. Entering the schools as a special ministration for the senses, nature study has been looked upon as merely a means of sense training. The work rests primarily upon observation; but if this is to be education, it must mean more than sense gymnastics. It involves, in fact, the entire mental equipment of the pupils. The mind knows an object only in its relations and through them. But the discernment of a relation requires the judgment and imagination as well as the senses. It will simplify the subject, if observation is allowed to stand for all the direct study of matter or energy. The various steps in the process may then be considered in the natural order of their occurrence. First, certain data are gathered by means of the senses. The mind, then, by an act of judgment discerns instantly certain relations which tie these to what is already known. Borne of these relations will appear at once with axiomatic clearness, the number of such depending upon the past experience of the pupil. This suggests two precautions, namely: first, call upon the pupil frequently to gather up all the odds and ends of his experience which lie in the direction of the study; second, the teacher must exercise good judgment in selecting subject matter so that what is chosen may actually stand as closely related as may be to what the pupil already knows. The relations at once recognized, suggest others concerning which there will be less jertainty, and these, still others, until the pupil at length tills up the whole realm of probability with suggested relations, near and remote, ...