But makes it impossible for the feelings of a pupil to be aroused by any purely intellectual activity on the part of the teacher. And this is true, of course, not only of nature study, but universally. Ideas may be conveyed by the intellect. Ideals can be developed only by one who loves and cherishes them for himself. Not long since, the principal of a certain school was warmly prais ing his teacher of history. The originality of the teacher, his love of research, his skill in unravelling the tangled web of historical causation, were warmly commended. "Has he the philanthropic impulse?" asked the listener. "Does he seek to know the causes of what has happened, so that he may learn how the errors of the past may be avoided? Does his study of history present itself to him as the way in which he can best contribute "his personal efforts as bricks and mortar for building the walls of the free democratic city, the supreme refuge of human dignity?" To which was given the almost pathetic reply. "I don't know." From such a teacher light can come, but not that sort of stimulation that tends to transform the life. Dr. Bigelow's "Tests of Proficiency in NatureStudy" will doubtless seem very ridiculous to those teachers who are afflicted with the worst of all pedagogical manias, the mania for information. But they are perfectly sound, and we might apply the same tests to the teaching of history in a high school or a college. Has it strengthened your determination to do your own thinking in political matters, the pupil might be asked? Has it made you resolve that, come what will, you will never wear any party collar? Has it made you feel the infinite pathos of the situation, if it should eventually appear that after many centuries of struggle, humanity succeeded in throwing off the rule of an oligarchy of birth, only to succumb to the tyrannical and self-seeking rule of the oligarchy of a party organization? If the pupil can honestly answer such questions in the affirmative, he has studied history to the best possible purpose, even though he is confused as to many of the dates upon which the information-mad teacher is in the habit of laying so much stress. In general, the Pedagogy of this book is entirely sound. The discipline of a school comes to seem an end in itself to the rigid disciplinarian. Not so to Dr. Bigelow. From the average teacher's point of view, the preservation of his dignity is a matter of so much importance, that the child must be repressed whenever he does anything that might seem to be a reflection upon it. Not so from Dr. Bigelow's point of view. With him, discipline, teacher, subject, method, must all stand in the background. The child, and the child alone, has a right to the centre of the stage. HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT CHAPTER I WHAT IS NATURE STUDY? The school-boy begins with a definition. "We will first define our subject. Webster says," etc. So, like the school-boy, I will begin with a definition, and thus impress upon my readers the fact that, in one respect at least, this article will harmonize with school-room experiences. Speaking of Webster and definitions recalls an experience of boyhood, in "the old red schoolhouse." It was "School Visitor," day, the last Wednesday of the term. School closed on Friday, but we were not expected to do much after the "Visitor" had been there. It was a terrible misfortune when the last day of the school term was "Visitor" day, for then we had no "after" ease! Of course, on "Visitor" day we wore our Sun |