and forests” perhaps only a park is possible, but there is no virtue in an excursion taken without preparation.  The teacher must first of all visit the place and see what it is likely to give the children.  She must tell them something of it, give them some aim in going there, such as collecting leaves or fruits, or recording different shapes of bare trees, or collecting things that grow in the grass.  These are examples of what a town park might yield.  Within one group of children there might be many with different aims.  During the days following the excursion time should be spent in using these experiences, either by means of painting and modelling, or making classified collections of things found, or compiling records, oral or written.  Otherwise the excursion degenerates into a school treat without its natural enjoyment.

With regard to the inevitable gaps in the children’s minds in connection with the world of living things, such pictures as the following should be in every town school:  a pine wood, a rabbit warren, a natural pond, a ditch and hedge, a hayfield in June, a wild daffodil patch, a sheet of bluebells, a cornfield at different stages, an orchard in spring and in autumn, and many others.  These must be constantly used when they are needed, and not misused in the artificial method known as “picture talks.”

There is another side to nature work.  Froebel says:  “The things of nature form a more beautiful ladder between heaven and earth than that seen by Jacob; not a one-sided ladder leading in one direction, but an all-sided one leading in all directions.  Not in dreams is it seen; it is permanent, it surrounds us on all sides.”

Froebel believed that contact with nature helps a child’s realisation of God, and any one who believes in early religious experience must agree; a child’s early questions and difficulties, as well as his early awe and fear show it—­he is probably nearer to God in his nature work than in many of the daily Scripture lessons.  All his education should be permeated by spiritual feeling, but there are some aspects in which the realisation is clearer, and possibly his contact with nature stands out as the highest in this respect.  There is no conscious method or art in bringing this about; the teacher must feel it and be convinced of it.

Thus we come to the conclusion that the Nursery School nature work can be safely left to look after itself, provided the surroundings are satisfying and the children are free.

In the transition and the junior school there should be no nature lessons of the object lesson type, but plenty of nature work, leading to talks, handwork, and poetry.  The aim is not economic or informational at this stage, but the development of pure appreciation and interest.  There can hardly be a regular place on the time-table for such irregular work, comprising excursions, gardening, handwork, and literature at least, and depending on the weather and the seasons.  There should always be a regular morning time for attending to plants and animals and for the Nature Calendar, but no “living” teacher will be a slave to mere time-table thraldom.