isa-normaladvance-1909-00144

Description:	144THE NORMAL ADVANCEColumbia University, Dr. Fairbanks of theUniversity of California, Dr. John M. Coulterof Chicago University, Dr. Bailey of Cornelland scores of others whose voices are potent inshaping the educational thought of the day.Nature study is founded upon sound pedagogical principles. And there is a distinct needfor it in any system of elementary education.The framers of the recent school law showedthe very best judgment in requiring teachers tomake some study of the subject before they arepermitted to try to teach it.I think the main reason why nature studyhas not been universally adopted, and whythere has not been better results is because itspurpose and methods have not been understoodas they should have been. The criticism hasbeen made repeatedly that its advocates themselves do not agree on the fundamental principles of the work. And this criticism was in ameasure true a few years ago but it is not trueat all today. The views of such men as justmentioned are in perfect accord. And in thelight of their views which have been publiclyexpressed from time to time, I wish to try toanswer briefly a few of the most importantquestions that have been asked, particularlysince the passage of the new school law.First a word in regard to the reason for ourhaving nature study in the schools.Why is it being introduced into the schoolseverywhere, when the course seems alreadyovercrowded? Does it have some educationalvalue which is unique ? In the evolution of thechild mind the faculties are successively dominant. There is a period when the languagefaculty, if I may so term it, is most active.Those of us who have tried to complete ourlanguage education in our maturer years fullyrealize this fact. Our advice is always to studylanguage when the mind is demanding thatkind of stimulus. Now there is just as distincta time in the development of a human mindwhen it begins to reach out and to try to knowits physical environment, that is, a period whenthis activity is unusually prominent. Teachersand parents know that this occurs in earlyyouth. The awakening of the faculty is heralded by the childs thousand and one questionsregarding everything with which he comes incontact. What is that? Why is this? Hecorners everybody to get answers to his questions. He tries the patience of his keepers. Atthis stage he is a veritable interrogation point.And it is not the devil but this faculty of mindwhich makes him steal behind the house to tearup his playthings to see what is inside. Dontpunish him for it, but encourage it by placingat his disposal a greater veriety of toys andthings to examine. For want of a psychological name for this faculty, I have called it theinvestigating spirit of youth. Dr. John M.Coulter terms it the tentacles of inquiry. Bywhatever name it may be called it is simply themind going out to get acquainted with its physical surroundings.Now there is nothing in the strictly conventional or theoretical educational which is designed to strengthen or stimulate this important faculty whose function it is to acquaintthe child with the physical world in which heis to live, to give him a better appreciation of,and more pleasure in the natural objects withwhich he comes in daily contact, to give himthe facts or information which he will take upin later life in a more scholarly and analyticalway in the sciences, and above all to develop inhim the spirit of self-reliance and independence, both requisites of a successful life.It is an undisputed fact that with the purelytheoretical education these tendencies whichare so active in early life are benumbed andlater in the high school and college when it isnecessary that this faculty should act as in thenatural sciences, it does not respond becausethe power to do so has been lost through disuse.Herein lies one, at least, of the needs for naturestudy, and this alone would be sufficientgrounds for its place in elementary education.Among those not familiar with nature studywork there is a great diversity of opinion as towhat nature study really is. This has probably been the cause of the lack of uniformityin the teaching. This plain, comprehensive
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34174
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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