CLASS IN OUTDOOR NATURE STUDY
As personal achievements appeal to the undeveloped mind more strongly than the chronicles of conflicts and political changes, the first course in history deals with biography. The student is given facts in the lives of men, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and is made to feel that these men actually lived, that they are not mere abstract influences. At the very beginning their lives are studied in the light of character building. After the first ideas of character building have been presented, the next step is to awaken the power of the observation, to quicken the imagination. The elementary course in English history is adapted to this purpose.
The course in advanced American History is for developing judgment and discrimination. Little attention is given to the periods of discovery and of colonisation, except to show the student how the American people, as is true of all great nations, began as cultivators of the soil.
The peculiar position of the Negro in American History, from the earliest days of the slave trade, through the wars with England and the Civil War, to the present time, is given due importance, not by isolating it, but by introducing it in its proper place with other events.
In the Senior year, a course is given in the State History of Alabama, for the benefit of those who wish to fit themselves as teachers in that State. The object is to acquaint the Normal student with the important facts in the settlement of Alabama, its entrance into the Union, and its present industrial and political status.
During the first three years, the course in Geography is taught with Nature Study. In the last year, Geography is combined with History. The purpose of this arrangement is obvious. Geography is really a broad phase of Nature Study. Questions regarding natural features, the sun, moon, planets, water-courses, physical points, etc., are explained in the course in Nature Study. Hence the pupil appreciates all the more what is said about them when he comes to them again in his Geography. The same intimacy is found in the study of plant and animal life, minerals, and rock formation.
Tuskegee is admirably fitted for the study of Geography, and every effort is made to make the teaching easily grasped. The industrial shops are always open to academic teachers and students. When the student takes up the subject of lumber, for example, he is able, by going to the shops, to understand the various stages through which the rough, uncut log must pass in order to make suitable building material. Then, too, the school grounds are put to excellent use. Various kinds of plant-life are studied; hills, valleys, small water-courses, examples of erosion, different kinds of soil, are seen on every hand. In connection with Nature Study and Geography, the pupils are urged to be on the alert to detect something new, something which they have seen often, but can afterward view in a new light because of the information obtained.
WOOD-TURNING MACHINERY