Chapter VII: Part I: The Teaching of Nature-Study (2)

Life depends upon its environment. Geographical conditions and limitations have shaped the mold into which plastic life has been poured and by which its form has been modified. It may be easy for the untrained mind to see how the deserts and oceans affect life. Cattle may not roam in the former because there is nothing there for them to eat, nor may they occupy the latter because they are not fitted for breathing air in the water. And yet the camel can endure thirst and live on the scant food of the desert; and the whale is a mammal fitted to live in the sea. The question is, how are we to impress the child with the “have to” which lies behind all these geographical facts. If animals live in the desert they _have to_ subsist on scant and peculiar food which grows there; they _have to_ get along with little water; they _have to_ endure heat and sand storms; they _have to_ have eyes that will not become blinded by the vivid reflection of the sunlight on the sand; they _have to_ be of sand color so that they may escape the eyes of their enemies or creep upon their prey unperceived.

All these have to’s are not mere chance, but they have existed so long that the animal, by constantly coming in contact with them, has attained its present form and habits.

There are just as many have to’s in the stream or the pond back of the school-house, on the dry hillside behind it or in the woods beyond the creek as there are in desert or ocean; and when the child gets an inkling of this fact, he has made a great step into the realm of geography. When he realizes why water lilies can grow only in still water that is not too deep and which has a silt bottom, and why the cat-tails grow in swamps where there is not too much water, and why the mullen grows in the dry pasture, and why the hepatica thrives in the rich, damp woods, and why the daisies grow in the meadows, he will understand that this partnership of nature and geography illustrates the laws which govern life. Many phases of physical geography belong to the realm of nature-study; the brook, its course, its work or erosion and sedimentation; the rocks of many kinds, the soil, the climate, the weather, are all legitimate subjects for nature-study lessons.

THE CORRELATION OF NATURE-STUDY WITH HISTORY

There are many points where nature-study impinges upon history in a way that may prove the basis for an inspiring lesson. Many of our weeds, cultivated plants and domestic animals have been introduced from Europe and are a part of our colonial history; while there are many of the most commonly seen creatures which have played their part in the history of ancient times. For instance, the bees which gave to man the only means available to him for sweetening his food until the 17th century, were closely allied to the home life of ancient peoples. The buffalo which ranged our western plains had much to do with the life of the red man. The study of the grasshopper brings to the child’s attention stories of the locusts’ invasion mentioned in the Bible, and the stars which witnessed our creation and of which Job sang and the ancients wrote, shine over our heads every night.

But the trees, through the lengthy span of their lives, cover more history individually, than do other organisms. In glancing across the wood-covered hills of New York one often sees there, far above the other trees, the gaunt crowns of old white pines. Such trees belonged to the forest primeval and may have attained the age of two centuries; they stand there looking out over the world, relics of another age when America belonged to the red man, and the bear and the panther played or fought beneath them. The cedars live longer than do the pines and the great scarlet oak may have attained the age of four centuries before it yields to fate.

Perhaps in no other way may the attention of the pupil be turned so naturally to past events, as through the thought that the life of such a tree has spanned so much of human history. The life history of one of these ancient trees should be made the center of local history; let the pupils find when the town was first settled by the whites and where they came from and how large the tree was then. What Indian tribes roamed the woods before that and what animals were common in the forest when this tree was a sapling? Thus may be brought out the chief events in the history of the county and township, when they were established and for whom or what they were named; and a comparison of the present industries may be made with those of a hundred years ago.

THE CORRELATION OF NATURE-STUDY WITH ARITHMETIC

The arithmetical problems presented by nature-study are many; some of them are simple and some of them are complicated, and all of them are illumining. Seed distribution especially lends itself to computation; a milkweed pod contains 140 seeds; there are five such pods on one plant, each milkweed plant requires at least one square foot of ground to grow on; how much ground would be required to grow all of the seeds from this one plant? Or, count the seeds in one dandelion head, multiply by the number of flower heads on the plant and estimate how many plants can grow on a square foot, then ask a boy how long it would take for one dandelion plant to cover his father’s farm with its progeny; or count the blossoms on one branch of an apple tree, later count the ripened fruit; what percentage of blossoms matured into fruit? Measuring trees, their height and thickness and computing the lumber they will make combines arithmetic and geometry, and so on _ad infinitum_.

As a matter of fact, the teacher will find in almost every nature lesson an arithmetic lesson; and when arithmetic is used in this work, it should be vital and inherent and not “tacked on;” the pupils should be really interested in the answers to their problems; and as with all correlation, the success of it depends upon the genius of the teacher.

GARDENING AND NATURE-STUDY

Erroneously, some people maintain that gardening is nature-study; this is not so necessarily nor ordinarily. Gardening may be a basis for nature-study but it is rarely made so to any great extent. Even the work in children’s gardens is so conducted that the pupils know little or nothing of the flowers or vegetables which they grow except their names, their uses to man and how to cultivate them. They are taught how to prepare the soil, but the reason for this from the plant’s standpoint is never revealed; and if the child becomes acquainted with the plants in his garden, he makes the discovery by himself. All this is nothing against gardening! It is a wholesome and valuable experience for a child to learn how to make a garden even if he remains ignorant of the interesting facts concerning the plants which he there cultivates. But if the teachers are so inclined, they may find in the garden and its products, the most interesting material for the best of nature lessons. Every plant the child grows is an individual with its own peculiarities as well as those of its species in manner of growth. Its roots, stems and leaves are of certain form and structure; and often the special uses to the plant of its own kind of leaves, stems and roots are obvious. Each plant has its own form of flower and even its own tricks for securing pollination; and its own manner of developing and scattering its seeds. Every weed of the garden has developed some special method of winning and holding its place among the cultivated plants; and in no other way may the child so fully and naturally come into a comprehension of that term “the survival of the fittest” as by studying the ways of the fit as exemplified in the triumphant weeds of his garden.

Every earthworm working below the soil is doing something for the garden. Every bee that visits the flowers there is on an errand for the garden as well as for herself. Every insect feeding on leaf or root is doing something to the garden. Every bird that nests near by or that ever visits it, is doing something which affects the life and the growth of the garden. What all of these uninvited guests are doing is one field of garden nature-study. Aside from all this study of individual life in the garden which even the youngest child may take part in, there are the more advanced lessons on the soil. What kind of soil is it? From what sort of rock was it formed? What renders it mellow and fit for the growing of plants? Moreover, what do the plants get from it? How do they get it? What do they do with what they get?

This leads to the subject of plant physiology, the elements of which may be taught simply by experiments carried on by the children themselves, experiments which should demonstrate the sap currents in the plant; the use of water to carry food and in making the plant rigid; the use of sunshine in making the plant food in the leaf laboratories; the nourishment provided for the seed and its germination, and many other similar lessons.

A child who makes a garden, and thus becomes intimate with the plants he cultivates, and comes to understand the interrelation of the various forms of life which he finds in his garden, has progressed far in the fundamental knowledge of nature’s ways as well as in a practical knowledge of agriculture.

NATURE-STUDY AND AGRICULTURE

Luckily, thumb-rule agriculture is being pushed to the wall in these enlightened days. Thumb rules would work much better if nature did not vary her performances in such a confusing way. Government experiment stations were established because thumb rules for farming were unreliable and disappointing; and all the work of all the experiment stations has been simply advanced nature-study and its application to the practice of agriculture. Both nature-study and agriculture are based upon the study of life and the physical conditions which encourage or limit life; this is known to the world as the study of the natural sciences; and if we see clearly the relation of nature-study to science, we may understand better the relation of nature-study to agriculture, which is based upon the sciences.

Nature-study is science brought home. It is a knowledge of botany, zoology and geology as illustrated in the dooryard, the corn-field or the woods back of the house. Some people have an idea that to know these sciences one must go to college; they do not understand that nature has furnished the material and laboratories on every farm in the land. Thus, by beginning with the child in nature-study we take him to the laboratory of the wood or garden, the roadside or the field, and his materials are the wild flowers or the weeds, or the insects that visit the golden-rod or the bird that sings in the maple tree, or the woodchuck whistling in the pasture. The child begins to study living things anywhere or everywhere, and his progress is always along the various tracks laid down by the laws of life, along which his work as an agriculturist must always progress if it is to be successful.

The child through nature-study learns the way a plant grows, whether it be an oak, a turnip or a pigweed; he learns how the roots of each is adapted to its needs; how the leaves place themselves to get the sunshine and why they need it; and how the flowers get their pollen carried by the bee or wind; and how the seeds are finally scattered and planted. Or he learns about the life of the bird, whether it be a chicken, an owl or a bobolink; he knows how each bird gets its food and what its food is, where it lives, where it nests and its relation to other living things. He studies the bumblebee and discovers its great mission of pollen carrying for many flowers, and in the end would no sooner strike it dead than he would voluntarily destroy his clover patch. This is the kind of learning we call nature-study and not science or agriculture. But the country child can never learn anything in nature-study that has not something to do with science; and that has not its own practical lesson for him, when he shall become a farmer.

Some have argued, “Why not make nature-study along the lines of agriculture solely? Why should not the child begin nature-study with the cabbage rather than the wild flowers?” This argument carried out logically provides recreation for a boy in hoeing corn rather than in playing ball. Many parents in the past have argued thus and have, in consequence, driven thousands of splendid boys from the country to the city with a loathing in their souls for the drudgery which seemed all there was to farm life. The reason why the wild flowers may be selected for beginning the nature-study of plants, is because every child loves these woodland posies, and his happiest hours are spent in gathering them. Never yet have we known of a case where a child having gained his knowledge of the way a plant lives through studying the plants he loves, has failed to be interested and delighted to find that the wonderful things he discovered about his wild flower may be true of the vegetable in the garden, or the purslane which fights with it for ground to stand upon.

Some have said, “We, as farmers, care only to know what concerns our pocket-books; we wish only to study those things which we must, as farmers, cultivate or destroy. We do not care for the butterfly, but we wish to know the plum weevil; we do not care for the trillium but we are interested in the onion; we do not care for the meadow-lark but we cherish the gosling.” This is an absurd argument since it is a mental impossibility for any human being to discriminate between two things when he knows or sees only one. In order to understand the important economic relations to the world of one plant or animal, it is absolutely necessary to have a wide knowledge of other plants and animals. One might as well say, “I will see the approaching cyclone, but never look at the sky; I will look at the clover but not see the dandelion; I will look for the sheriff when he comes over the hill but will not see any other team on the road.”

Nature-study is an effort to make the individual use his senses instead of losing them; to train him to keep his eyes open to all things so that his powers of discrimination shall be based on wisdom. The ideal farmer is not the man who by hazard and chance succeeds; he is the man who loves his farm and all that surrounds it because he is awake to the beauty as well as to the wonders which are there; he is the man who understands as far as may be the great forces of nature which are at work around him, and therefore, he is able to make them work for him. For what is agriculture save a diversion of natural forces for the benefit of man! The farmer who knows these forces only when restricted to his paltry crops, and has no idea of their larger application, is no more efficient as a farmer than would a man be as an engineer who knew nothing of his engine except how to start and stop it.

In order to appreciate truly his farm, the farmer must needs begin as a child with nature-study; in order to be successful and make the farm pay, he must needs continue in nature-study; and to make his declining years happy, content, full of wide sympathies and profitable thought, he must needs conclude with nature-study; for nature-study is the alphabet of agriculture and no word in that great vocation may be spelled without it.

NATURE-STUDY CLUBS

The organizing of a club by the pupils for the purpose of studying out-of-door life, is a great help and inspiration to the work in nature-study in the classroom. The essays and the talks before the club, prove efficient aid in English composition; and the varied interests of the members of the club, furnish new and vital material for study. A button or a badge may be designed for the club and, of course, it must have constitution and by-laws. The proceedings of the club meetings should be conducted according to parliamentary rules; but the field excursions should be entirely informal.

The meetings of the Junior Naturalists Clubs, as organized in the schools of New York State by Mr. John W. Spencer, were most impressive. The school session would be brought to a close, the teacher stepping down and taking a seat with the pupils. The president of the club, some bashful boy or slender slip of a girl would take the chair and conduct the meeting with a dignity and efficiency worthy of a statesman. The order was perfect, the discussion much to the point. I confess to a feeling of awe when I attended these meetings, conducted so seriously and so formally, by such youngsters. Undoubtedly, the parliamentary training and experience in speaking impromptu, are among the chief benefits of such a club.

These clubs may be organized for special study. In one bird club of which I know there have been contests. Sides were chosen and the number of birds seen from May 1st to 31st inclusive was the test of supremacy. Notes on the birds were taken in the field with such care, that when at the end of the month each member handed in his notes, they could be used as evidence of accurate identification. An umpire with the help of bird manuals decided the doubtful points. This year the score stood 79 to 81.

The programs of the nature club should be varied so as to be continually interesting. Poems and stories, concerning the objects studied, help make the program attractive.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

First and indispensably, the teacher should have at hand the subject of the lesson. She should make herself familiar with the points covered by the questions and read the story before giving the lesson. If she does not have the time to go over the observations suggested, before giving the lesson, she should take up the questions with the pupils as a joint investigation, and be boon companion in discovering the story.

The story should not be read to the pupils. It is given as an assistance to the teacher, and is not meant for direct information to the pupils. If the teacher knows a fact in nature’s realm, she is then in a position to lead her pupils to discover this fact for themselves.

Make the lesson an investigation and make the pupils feel that they are investigators. To tell the story to begin with, inevitably spoils this attitude and quenches interest.

The “leading thought” embodies some of the points which should be in the teacher’s mind while giving the lesson; it should not be read or declared to the pupils.

The outlines for observations herein given, by no means cover all of the observations possible; they are meant to suggest to the teacher observations of her own, rather than to be followed slavishly.

The suggestions for observations have been given in the form of questions, merely for the sake of saving space. The direct questioning method, if not employed with discretion, becomes tiresome to both pupil and teacher. If the questions do not inspire the child to investigate, they are useless. To grind out answers to questions about any natural object is not nature-study, it is simply “grind,” a form of mental activity which is of much greater use when applied to spelling or the multiplication table than to the study of nature. The best teacher will cover the points suggested for observations with few direct questions. To those who find the questions inadequate I will say that, although I have used these outlines once, I am sure I should never be able to use them again without making changes.

The topics chosen for these lessons may not be the most practical nor the most interesting nor the most enlightening that are to be found; they are simply those subjects which I have used in my classes, because we happened to find them at hand the mornings the lessons were given.

While an earnest attempt has been made to make the information in this book accurate, it is to be expected and to be hoped that many discrepancies will be found by those who follow the lessons. No two animals or plants are just alike, and no two people see things exactly the same way. The chief aim of this volume is to encourage investigation rather than to give information. Therefore, if mistakes are found, the object of the book will have been accomplished, and the author will feel deeply gratified. If the teacher finds that the observations made by her and her pupils, do not agree with the statements in the book, I earnestly enjoin upon her to trust to her own eyes rather than to any book.

No teacher is expected to teach all the lessons in this book. A wide range of subjects is given, so that congenial choice may be made.