Guide to the Systematic Use of the North American Bird and Nature Study: A Manual and Reference (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Guide to the Systematic Use of the North American Bird and Nature Study: A Manual and Reference

In presenting the subjects Of nature-study to young pupils there are several points a teacher should keep In mind. The child instinctively attributes to other creatures as much personality as he himself possesses, and a line of least resistance will follow this idea. The animals are hungry and seek a dinner; they are Sleepy and seek a bed; they are lonely and seek a playmate. They have the instincts of hunger, thirst, fear, hatred, play, and moths. Love; some curiosity, some memory, and some reason or judgment. The thought Of personality calls for a name, and besides mother, baby, and other family terms, every Child names his household pets, the Chipmunk, the squirrel, the ground hog, Johnny Darter, and the other animals of his acquaintance. Young pupils demand this method OF teaching but Older ones come to regard it as meaningless. The primary teacher and the high school instructor must each find his limit.

This personification Of other creatures easily gives to them mental traits which they can not possess. It has resulted in too many animal stories that are scientifically untrue, and whose falsity, discovered, disgusts the pupils with all pertaining to the subject. All nature-study fiction must be founded upon fact.

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