Lessons on Soil | Page 4

he must find local illustrations and make liberal use of them during the course; it is hoped that the information given will help him over any difficulties he may experience.
This necessity for finding local illustrations constitutes one of the fundamental differences between Nature Study subjects and other subjects of the school curriculum. The textbooks in some of the others may be necessary and sufficient; in Nature Study it is at most only subsidiary, serving simply as a guide to the thing that is to be studied; unless the thing itself be before the class it is no better than a guide to a cathedral would be without the cathedral. And just as the guide is successful only when he directs the attention of the stranger to the important features of the place, and fails directly he becomes garrulous and distracts attention, so a Nature Study book succeeds {xii} only in as far as it helps in the study of the actual thing, and fails if it is used passively and is substituted for an active study. No description or illustration can take the place of direct observation; the simplest thing in Nature is infinitely more wonderful than our best word pictures can ever paint it.
The author recommends the teacher to look through the chapter before it has to be taken in class and then to make a few expeditions in search of local illustrations. It is not strictly necessary that the chapters should be taken in the order given. The local phenomena must be dealt with as they arise and as weather permits, or the opportunity may pass not to return again during the course. In almost any lane, field, or garden a sufficient number of illustrations may be obtained for our purpose; if a stream and a hill are accessible the material is practically complete, especially if the children can be induced to pursue their studies during their summer holiday rambles. Of course this entails a good deal of work for the teacher, but the results are worth it. Children enjoy experimental and observation lessons in which they take an active part and are not merely passive learners. The value of such lessons in developing their latent powers and in stimulating them to seek for knowledge in the great book of Nature is a sufficient recompense to the enthusiastic teacher for the extra trouble involved.
It is not desirable to work through a chapter in one lesson. Children unaccustomed to make experiments or to see experiments done, will probably require three or four lessons for getting through each of the first few chapters, and two or three lessons for each of the others.
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The pot experiments of Chaps. VI., VII. and VIII. should be started as early in the course as possible. Twenty flower pots are wanted for the set; they should be of the same size, about eight inches being a convenient diameter, and should be kept together in a warm place. Three are filled with sand, seven with subsoil, and the remaining ten with surface soil. Three of the subsoil pots are uncropped, two being stored moist and one dry. Four pots of the surface soil are uncropped and moist, a fifth and sixth are uncropped and dry, one of these contains earthworms (p. 54). Four glazed pots, e.g. large jam or marmalade jars, are also wanted (p. 69). Mustard, buckwheat, or rye make good crops, but many others will do. Leguminous crops, however, show certain abnormal characters, while turnips and cabbages are apt to fail: none of these should be used. It is highly desirable that the pots should be duplicated.
The plots also should be started in the school garden as early as convenient. Eight are required for the set: their treatment is described in Chap. IX. Plots two yards square suffice.
A supply of sand, of clay, and of lime will be wanted, but it is not necessary to have fresh material for each lesson. The sand may be obtained from a builder, a sand pit, the sea shore or from a dealer in chemical apparatus. The clay may be obtained from a brick yard; it gives most satisfactory results after it has been ground ready for brick making. Modelling clay is equally satisfactory. A supply of rain water is desirable.
For a class of twelve children working in pairs at the experiments the following apparatus is wanted for the whole course:--
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Six tripods and bunsen burners or spirit lamps [2] twelve pipe-clay triangles [4] twelve crucibles or tin lids [3] sixteen gas jars [4] twelve beakers 250 c.c. capacity [4] two beakers 500 c.c. two beakers 100 c.c. six egg-cups [2] twelve funnels [3] six funnel stands [1] six perforated glass disks [3] two tubulated bottles 500 c.c., four corks to fit cork borers 4 lbs. assorted glass tubing