NATURE-STUDY AS A SCHOOL SUBJECT. Το By W. SPENCER BUXTON, Ph.D. O encourage nature-study in rural schools, the Board of Education has recently published a series of specimen courses of lessons drawn up by teachers and found by them to be practicable. The schemes of work are suggestive, and well worth the attention of masters and mistresses interested in natural history, and possessing sufficient opportunity and knowledge to become interpreters of outdoor nature. The aim is to bring country children into sympathy with their surroundings, and lead them to understand some of the principles underlying rural pursuits and operations. Pleasant are the roads to knowledge thus laid down. The studies are to be of a general character, and no attempt is to be made to systematise them. Intelligence is to be developed in children by taking advantage of their natural inquisitiveness, emulation and activity; and a taste for work and study out of doors is to be encouraged by class excursions. This reads very attractively, and if the schemes can be carried out without interfering with the ordinary work of a school, while the Board of Education smiles approval, the teachers and pupils are to be congratulated upon their happy lots. From the introduction to the schemes, the following notes upon the subjects included in them and the points to be borne in mind when dealing with them are of especial value. The subjects that are of special interest to children living in the country are set forth under the following heads, which contain none that cannot be studied through lessons in which the objects which are chosen for illustration may be actually seen, watched or handled, or in some cases measured : Birds and their habits. Insects. The life history of a few common insects. Flowers. The growth and habits of some wild and garden flowers. Trees and the common kinds of timber. Ponds and Streams. Living things in still and running water. Sand and mud. Pure and impure water. Soils, mud, sand, clay, gravel, &c. Observation of quarries and lime pits. Air. Weather chart. Rainfall. Frost and Heat. Venti- The Heart and Blood. Of course no school will attempt all the subjects which are here suggested. Various groups of object lessons will be arranged for various schools according to the tastes, acquirements and opportunities of the teachers. It will be apparent that studies of the above kind are not to be regarded as separate subjects which can be dealt with independently of the rest of the work of the school. They cannot be set down on the time-table under one specific head. The reading lesson, for example, may treat of an object which has been dealt with at another time by direct observation or experiment. The art of describing what has been seen or handled will be practised in the lessons on English composition. Measurements of land, and similar calculations in connection with the object lessons, will afford practice in arithmetic, while drawing and manual training will both be called into play to illustrate many details which are inadequately understood without their aid. The general instruction of the school will be modified in many of its branches by the study of the world of nature outside. Consequently work of this kind is not of the nature of an additional study (as it is, for instance, in the case of commencing a foreign language), but rather a change in the contents of the lessons in the ordinary subjects, and the Board of Education are aware that this change can only be made gradually. HINTS TO TEACHERS. (1) Do not attempt too much in one lesson. One object may usefully supply matter for several lessons, each beginning with a little recapitulation of what has been found out before. (2) Secure a succession of suitable objects. (3) In every expedition take care that the class know beforehand what they are going to see, and that they afterwards make some written or drawn reproduction of what they have seen. (4) The instruction given should be based upon observation and experiment. It is very important that lessons should not be given upon subjects which cannot be seen by the children or demonstrated to them. (5) Encourage the children to draw the various objects and apparatus shown, and especially such things as the various stages in the development of the tadpole from the egg, the germination of seeds, the structure of flowers, &c. (6) In some cases the children may be encouraged to make simple models of objects which they have seen and examined, but in no case should the model replace the actual object. (7) The children should be called upon in turn to assist the teacher in preparing apparatus for experiments. (8) The instruction should in every case be appropriate to the season of the year and the circumstances of the locality. (9) In nature lessons, kindness to animals and respect for life should always be impressed on the children. There are a few points upon which a few comments in connection with these schemes will not be without interest. In the first place, it is to be doubted whether many teachers in country primary schools are sufficiently familiar with the features of Mother Nature to describe them; and unless they have devoted attention to her ways they will find it difficult to explain them. The teacher who conducts a class on a natural history expedition, and is not himself well acquainted with outdoor nature, will return in the condition of a witness who has been subjected to a severe cross-examination in a law court. He will learn that there are many curious things on earth, in water, and in air, the nature and significance of which he is at a loss to discover. In fact, unless the teacher is a naturalist himself, by inclination and by experience, neither he nor his pupils are likely to derive much satisfaction from the excursion. Even when the teacher is inspired with a love of nature, the difficulties in the way of out-door lessons are very great. The day upon which an expedition has been arranged may turn out very stormy, so the lesson has to be postponed. The sun's altitude is to be measured on the shortest day of the year, but this is prevented by the sun refusing to appear. The forms of snow flakes are to be observed under a microscope, but the flakes do not have the beautifully symmetrical shapes illustrated in books. Frogs are to be developed from spawn, but the spawn, though carefully preserved, is not transformed into tadpoles, or the tadpoles will not become frogs, but remain tadpoles until they are found dead in the water. These and many other difficulties will present themselves to the teacher who attempts to give instruction in natural objects and phenomena without being well acquainted with the vagaries of nature. "She's a rum 'un, is Nature," and her character is only known to those who have tested it. There are very good reasons why nature-study can only be treated as an adjunct to other subjects, so far as the school time-table is concerned. The fundamental principles of physics and chemistry admit of simple experimentation both in class room and laboratory. The experiments can usually be brought to a conclusion, and an instructive result obtained, in the hour or two at the disposal of the teacher or pupil. It is thus possible to work steadily through a course, and to secure attention to the points to be elucidated. Moreover, when dealing with the inorganic world, the experiments can be described with sufficient precision to ensure their success when performed with moderate care. But with organic nature the case is more complicated. After planting seeds, for instance, it is necessary to wait for some time before any result can be observed, and if anything goes wrong with the plants or the animals under observation, another opportunity of repeating the experiment may not occur until the following year. This, it would seem, explains why nature-study, though of deep interest, is less adaptable to school work than physics and chemistry. Probably the best way of dealing with it is through the school natural history society, instead of attempting to find a place for it in the curriculum. In any case, the stress of work in a secondary school will but rarely permit of expeditions in school hours, even if the weather conditions were so settled that arrangements could be made in advance. With a master or parent in sympathy with nature, an excursion into the country can be made a source of instruction and interest-to some boys. Such field-days can be best arranged in connection with the natural history society of the school, or a Sunday walk may be utilised to direct attention to some of the characteristics of natural things. Unfortunately, field-days have a tendency to become picnics, and the main object is often kept unobtrusively in the background. Only when the master is himself not only an enthusiastic naturalist, but is also capable of inspiring the same spirit in others, does an excursion of this kind create a new world for the pupils. It is, however, not to be expected that every teacher has had the time or opportunity to become an efficient interpreter of all the signs and wonders of nature, but there are many who desire to know more of natural history and to foster a love of the subject in the pupils under their charge. To these teachers such notes as those given by Prof. J. A. Thomson in the April number of THE SCHOOL WORLD and the course of "Experimental Plant Physiology" communicated by Prof. L. C. Mial to the February issue are very helpful. What I should like to see are statements of the experience of a few teachers in secondary schools of various types as to the practicability of naturestudy as a school subject, and the means by which it can be adapted to the capacities and opportunities of the average boy. CAMBRIDGE LOCAL EXAMINATIONS, 1900. HINTS FROM THE EXAMINERS' REPORTS. UBLIC examinations are of the greatest value in at least one respect. They reveal, with startling clearness, certain widespread weaknesses shown by candidates from all parts of the country, and from schools of many different grades, adopting a great diversity of methods. No surer means of discovering those divisions of the subjects taught in secondary schools which present peculiar difficulties to boys and girls are at present available. The Reports of the Examiners in the Cambridge Local Examinations held last December are consequently worthy of a critical study. The teacher who is anxious to do his best for his pupils will be well advised in obtaining a copy of the "Forty-third Annual Report of the Syndicate of the University of Cambridge," where he will find these common failings duly chronicled. These reports contain, in addition to notes on the weak spots in the candidate's armour, a comparison of the standard of the answers of last December with those of previous years. We only have space enough to direct attention to the most noticeable of the general failings. We must refer the interested teacher to the official reports themselves for other information he may require. Senior Candidates.-The examiners in Arithmetic report that a question on Compound Interest was worked correctly by almost all who employed decimals, and incorrectly by almost all who did not. In this and in a question in Practice only about fifty per cent. of the candidates understood the expression "correct to the nearest penny," and of those who gave the correct results few arrived at them by proper methods of approxi mation. The candidates in the examination on the Epistles generally showed themselves lacking in the power to reproduce in their own words the thoughts of the Epistles, and in most cases merely quoted in extenso the very words of the writers. The literary form, too, of many of the answers left room for improvement, and there were some cases of very bad spelling. There was in the answers to the questions on "As You Like It" much irrelevance in the an swers to the question on the way in which character is illustrated by the speeches of the Banished Duke and Jaques on forest life and scenes. Many candidates supposed that a sufficient answer was given by writing out the speeches in full: others. described the characters of the persons referred to without any special reference to the speeches in question. The art of paraphrasing was as little understood as in previous years: the renderings in most cases missed the meaning, and in all but a few entirely failed to elucidate the syntactical construction of the passage. But the candidates showed a decidedly better knowledge of the play per se and a very real and lively interest in its characters and setting; they also showed more independence and intelligence in the use which they made of text-book helps. There were in the History answers two curious mistakes made frequently: one was the use of the expression "scarcity of labour," where "scarcity of employment" was meant: the other, the use of the date 1600 for 1500, the year being over and over again given correctly in the wrong century. Slang expressions, topical allusions, and references to current politics are to be deprecated. The work of the Senior girls in Latin was disappointing. Nearly forty-five per cent. failed to secure the minimum for passing in unprepared translation, and in many cases there was scarcely any approximation made to the meaning of the piece. Guess-work of the most flagrant kind was frequent. The chief defect noticeable in the German papers was unfamiliarity with the ordinary German expressions found in everyday literature and conversation, and this deficiency was conspicuous in the composition, of which very few correct and idiomatic versions were submitted. The work of the girls in Algebra was very much inferior to that of the boys: good sets of answers and intelligent work were the exception. Many girls sent up quite worthless attempts on seven or eight questions: in equations x was left in terms of x; in bookwork on Geometrical Progression a line or two that was utterly wrong often indicated that the candidate was dependent on memory. One specially unsatisfactory feature of the work was that many girls who failed badly in attempting elementary questions had been allowed to go on to Permutations and the Binomial Theorem. In many cases the new syllabus in Physical Geography prepared for this subject had apparently not been studied. There was little evidence of the direct observation of natural phenomena: for example, while the movements of the moon (not asked for) were often correctly shown by a diagram, its appearance to an observer was almost always wrongly represented. The answers to questions on maps seldom gave any indication that the writers had had any practical experience in drawing them. Junior Candidates. The answers of Juniors in the Old Testament subjects often betrayed confusion of ideas for example, the crossing of the Red Sea was often confounded with the crossing of the Jordan; and what was much more serious, the Saviour's name was introduced into the events of Old Testament history. The question which dealt with places was badly answered. The explanation of detached passages from "As You Like It" was usually given in the language of text-books, and aimed rather at supplying information about the context than at explaining the meanings of the doubtful words; and in many cases the answers were rambling and disorderly, often containing the required explanation more than once. The work of the great mass of the candidates in English History, in the case of both boys and girls, showed that in their preparation too much reliance had been placed on memory, and that insufficient attention had been given to exciting interest and bringing out intelligence. The provisions of important Acts of Parliament were often given correctly for the most part, but with some curious perversion which proved that the writer had no real understanding of their meaning, and indeed. did not know what an Act of Parliament was. In a large number of cases questions which asked for the effect of certain proceedings or the arguments for and against certain courses of action were evaded rather than answered: the candidates gave a narrative of the surrounding circumstances, but made no attempt to trace the connection between cause and effect or to weigh the reasons on either side in a constitutional dispute. A good deal of wild writing was evoked by the request for information as to the way in which England acquired the principal colonial possessions she held in 1688. Great ignorance was shown, in the Geography papers, of the forms and extent of the great oceans and of ocean distances; it should be remembered that our water-ways are of supreme importance, and that, therefore, the teaching of geography should not be confined to the study of continents and countries. It was evident, too, that at several centres sufficient time had not been given to geography, only a very superficial acquaintance with the subject having been acquired, but these instances were perhaps fewer in number than in former years. The work in Latin accidence, on the whole, seemed to be inferior to that of the preceding year, and there was more than the usual carelessness in reading the questions, singulars being given for plurals and vice versa, supines for infinitives, genitives instead of genders. The declension of substantives was done worse than any other part of the accidence, substantives being often declined as adjectives of three terminations. There was some guessing at the genders. The comparison of adverbs and adjectives was bad; the numerals were known a little better, but too much French is still given instead of Latin. In the passage chosen for the easy unprepared translation into Latin, errors were due to a weakness of vocabulary, a confusion between words of similar appearance or sound, and a neglect, in many cases, of the most elementary rules of syntax. In dealing with translation into French of the passage of continuous prose, too many candidates evinced signs of carelessness in the use of prepositions, the gender of substantives, and the distinction between the imperfect and past definite tenses. On the whole, some excellent work is being done in German, but the Examiners would impress upon teachers the necessity of paying more attention to the elementary accidence. There seems to be too great a tendency to "push on," and too universal an idea that the best way to learn a language is through the medium of translation into the native tongue. Undue attention appears to have been given to the preparation of the set books, to the neglect of grammar and composition. In Algebra the principles involved in the reduction of fractions were very imperfectly understood by a large proportion of the Junior candidates, many of whom appeared to think that + and -, o and 1, were interchangeable at will. In the more advanced part of the paper the most noticeable weakness was the want of care shown in the attempts at the easier questions; for instance, in the easier of the two equations the cross-multiplication yielded a strange variety of results, and in the question on Progressions the common difference and common ratio were given incorrectly in a large proportion of cases. many centres candidates had evidently been taught Combinations and the Binomial Theorem before having mastered the more elementary subjects. At The Examiners in Experimental Science say that it would be a good thing if teachers would return to their pupils the results of their experimental work some time after the experiments have been performed, and ask them to explain what they meant. They might learn in this way to write down a complete statement of the observations made. In the present examination the candidates were asked to make a solution of salt and to determine its specific gravity: a large number omitted to state what quantity of salt they had used. Preliminary Candidates. Great ignorance was shown of the passages from Holy Scripture set for explanation this seemed to point, the Examiners say, to the fact that text-books had been studied rather than the Bible itself. Many of the candidates narrated miracles and parables almost in the words of the Bible, but several described similar incidents not recorded in the chapters set, while not a few failed to distinguish between miracles and parables, speaking of "the Parable of the Ten Lepers," and narrating the cursing of the barren fig-tree instead of the parable. The fact that accurate definitions in the English Grammar answers were often followed by inaccurate examples would seem to show either that too great trust is often placed in mere memory-work or that many teachers have not yet grasped the importance of the principle of connecting rules with examples. No. 29, VOL. 3.] The parsing in the French papers was very unsatisfactory; the candidates appeared to know the technical terms of grammar without being able to apply them correctly. The composition was as bad as could be. The weakest point in the German answers was the accidence, extremely few of the candidates showing any knowledge of the commonest irregular verbs, and few being able to translate simple English phrases or sentences into correct German. THE GULF-STREAM FALLACY IN THERE are few things more curious to-day than the deference paid in educational circles and in the newspapers to exploded theories as to climate and weather causation. Of all cases of adherence to the old beliefs, the abandoned camp of an earlier, cruder science, the remarkable deference paid to the Gulf-stream theory of climate is particularly a case in point. This comes naturally from the failure to grasp the essential facts of the atmospheric circulation in the north temperate zone. Though the theory still persists that the Gulf Stream alone by its own inherent warmth causes the mild climate of north-western Europe, and though it is still referred to in a familiar off-hand manner by school teachers in teaching physical geography and by writers who ought to know better, yet most people seem unfamiliar with the broader restatements of the problem now made by meteorologists. By itself alone the Gulf Stream has as much effect on the climate of north-western Europe as the fly in the fable had in carrying the stage-coach up the hill. The mild climate of north-western Europe is due not to the Gulf Stream, but to the prevailing eastward and north-eastward drift of the circumpolar atmospheric circulation, the aërial currents of which, and not the Gulf Stream, distribute the heat conserved by the whole Atlantic Ocean north of latitude 35° (roughly) over Europe. The entire surface of the Atlantic Ocean north of the region of the trade winds, or rather north and west of the centre of the great North Atlantic anticyclone, is drifted to the north-east by the prevailing aërial drift, which drift, and not the ocean currents, carries the beneficent influences of the ocean over the European islands and the shores to the east and north-east. The Gulf Stream, itself a result of wind motion, being produced by the joint action of the Atlantic anticyclones, is not distinguishable in temperature or "set" from the rest of the ocean by the time it gets east of Newfoundland, yet it has been given the credit that belongs to the whole mass of the Atlantic, so far as the latent power to affect climate is concerned, while at the same time the determining function played by the aërial currents of the great circumpolar drift is completely ignored. The same fallacy prevails as to the power of the Japan current to affect the coastal climate of north-western North America. As a matter of fact, were the aërial drift, that is, the circulation of the atmosphere in the north temperate zone, to remain as it is to-day, and were by any possibility the Gulf Stream to be diverted at the Straits of Florida, no one in England would be a whit the wiser, for it is the aërial drift that has the gift of mildness in its flow. The diversion-of-the-Gulf-stream bogey may impress those who have a smattering of physiography, but it has no terror for him who knows that the Gulf Stream myth has nothing to rest on save the bad science of fifty years ago and its recrudescence in the present. 1 Abridged from a paper by Mr. H. M. Watts in the U.S. Monthly Weather Review. P German, French and English Languages, Literature. Methods of modern language teaching. Phonetics, Pedagogy, Natural Science, History, Geography. Pedagogy, Natural Science, History of Art, Memal and Moral Science, Religion, German Language and Literature, ducation of defective children. Pedagogy, Psychology, Ethics, History, Natural Science, Languages, Courses. Pedagogy, History of German Language, German Literature, Modern History, History of Art, Phonetics, German, English, French; English and French Literature, Modern Language Teaching according to the New Method. Classical and modern French Literature, French institutions, special classes for study of the spoken language, thetoric. style, syntax and methods of teaching. Literature; Philology: Phonetics; special study of the spoken language Methods of teaching. French institutions. History. General study of French Language and Litera ture. Neuchatel— 1st Course, July 15 August 10. 2nd Course, Au gust 12-Septem ber 7. SPAIN: AvilaAugust 5-25 FRANCE: ToursAugust 1-22* 305. to 21. course. for the Via Paris, Bordeaux & Irun, gl. 45. 275. a week H. B. Garrod, Esq., 74, Gower-street, London, W.C., or J. Turner, Esq., County Technical Offices, Stafford. H. B. Garrod, Esq., 74, Gower Street, London, W.C. Visits to places of interest in the neighbourhood. Conversation classes. Under management of special committee ap pointed by the Teachers' Guild to promote a knowledge of the French language, customs, &c., among English people. As above. As above. As above 17. 165. i.e., 335. to Rouen and back thence book to Elbeuf. 2l. 10s. 3d. Monsieur le Secrétaire, l'Alliance Française, rue de Grenelle 45. Monsieur Louis Jabot, Université Hall, Boulevarde Saint Michel 95; or W. G. Lipscomb, Esq., Hon.Sec., Modern Language Association, University College School, London, W. C. Monsieur Marcel-Reymond, 4, Place de la Constitution. Monsieur I. Gavet, rue des Tiercelins 46. 1/. 125. 5 to 6 francs * These dates are given subject to alteration; the exact dates will be found in the "Teachers' Guild Handbook," to be published at the beginning of May. |