is difficult to provide enough subject matter to keep the class satisfied. Projects in Nature Study. Nature study should be taught by the project method. The teacher has an initial advantage in this subject in that he will not be hindered by logically arranged textbooks. There are few texts in use, and the one which has had the widest circulation is distinctly on the project order.1 Illustrative projects in this subject are: 1. The arrival of the birds in the spring (any or all grades). Constant watch for the first arrival of each kind with reports at school. A study of the habits of some of these (both from books or magazine articles and from life). Their nests. Eggs. Food and methods of finding it. (Watch them.) How they care for their young. 2. Mushrooms. (Intermediate or upper grades.) Children collect the different kinds and bring them to school for identification. Read of the poisonous nature of some and methods of detecting these. Make the spore test and others at school. (Each child should be allowed to make the test.) Survey the community and teach the children to tell each edible variety; warn them of the danger lurking in ones which to all outward circumstances appear innocent. 1 Hodge, C. F. Nature Study and Life. 3. Snakes. (Any or all grades.) Catch the different non-poisonous varieties and bring them to school. The teacher should illustrate that they are not dangerous. Make a study in books and magazines of the value of snakes, toads, and lizards to man. Teach the children how to tell the poisonous kinds, and ascertain which of these are found in the local community. Other live and interesting projects may be found in the study of hundreds of varieties of wild life found in the home community, and concerning which the public library will furnish plenty of material in books and magazine articles, which may be related to the children of the lower grades, read to those in the intermediate grades, and read by those in the upper grades. Home Projects Educational Value of Home Life. When the final test of the efficiency in life of a given individual is applied, it is usually found that his life outside of school was a larger factor in the development of vital abilities than his schooling. The child spends approximately one third of the time he is awake in school. Presuming that everything he does there is of great educational value, the one third of his life spent in school is not likely to have as much influence upon him as the two thirds spent outside. When we remember that most children live a more active, aggressive life outside of school than inside, the dominance of the home and community life in their education cannot be doubted. Many individuals succeed in life with little or no schooling. We find such persons, highly educated both tech nically and academically, playing leading rôles in every walk of life. In fact, it is a common occurrence to find school-trained men living neighbors to others who have had practically no schooling, the latter being more successful in their respective vocations, reading more and better books, and leading a larger life socially. This need not indicate that the school has been a failure,1 but such occurrences demonstrate the value of the forms of education which are found outside of schools. It must be kept in mind that every individual, whether he is a success or a failure, is self-made. Those who have good schools to attend have an advantage; those who have good homes are even more fortunate; but those who are trained under the proper school-home stimulus and guidance have an ideal educational environment. To the extent that the school enlarges the everyday life of the child, it will be successful in truly educating him. What he gets there must be a part of him; he must try to assimilate and use it. In order to bring this about, the school must reach beyond the five and one half hours of its daily program and become an organizing and stimulating factor in the entire life of the child. Recognition of Home Work by the School. In the past the school has been too exclusive. It placed too much stress upon where and under what regulations an achievement was made. The actual educational value of the work 1 Studies show that the school-trained man usually excels, but this is true only if he is a student in life also. Many well-schooled men fail because they do not grow beyond their schooling. A CORNER OF A SCHOOL-HOME PROJECT EXHIBIT. THE GIRL IN THE CENTER IS MAKING CHOCOLATE ON AN ELECTRIC TOASTER MADE BY ONE OF THE BOYS. CAKES, BREAD, ETC., ARE AT THE LEFT |