The use of a simple lens often contributes much interest to the work of observation. The compound microscope may be used to show some exceptionally interesting point, as the compound eyes of insects, the scales on the butterfly's wing, or the viscid thread of the spider. But this is by no means necessary. Nature-study work does not actually require the use of either microscope or lens, although the latter is a desirable adjunct.
The great danger that besets the teacher just beginning nature-study is too much teaching, and too many subjects. In my own work I would rather a child spent one term finding out how one spider builds its orb web than that he should study a dozen different species of spiders.
If the teacher at the end of the year has opened the child's mind and heart in two or three directions nature-ward, she has done enough.
In teaching about animals, teach no more of the anatomy than is obviously connected with the distinctive habits of each one; i. e., the hind legs of a grasshopper are long so that it can jump, and the ears of a rabbit are long so that it can hear the approach of its foes.
While it is desirable for the teacher to know more than she teaches, in nature-study she may well be a learner with her pupils since they are likely any day to read some page of nature's book never before read by human eyes. This attitude of companionship in studying with her pupils will have a great value in enabling her to maintain happy and pleasant relations with them. It has also great disciplinary value.
Reasons for and against graded courses in nature-study.
The question whether there should be a graded course in nature-study is decidedly a query with two answers.
The reasons why there should not be a graded course, are:
1st. The work should be spontaneous and should be suggested each day by the material at hand. Mother Nature follows no schedule. She refuses to produce a violet one day, an oriole the next, and a blue butterfly on the third.
2d. A graded course means a hard and fast course which each teacher must follow whether or not her tastes and training coincide with it.