Relation to Schools

I have on various occasions discussed the relation of our work to Nature Study in schools, but for the benefit of newer members perhaps you will permit me to summarize our aims in this direction. It is our desire to have all sections of the community represented in our membership, but we wish in particular that teachers should benefit by our lectures and excursions, as well as by their association with other members of like tastes.

Owing to the fact that the flora and fauna on this side of the Rocky Mountains differs markedly from that of the East, and that many of our most experienced teachers are from the east, difficulties frequently creep up regarding some of the common objects of nature, and teachers are often at a loss to know where to turn for assistance.

Hundreds of teachers at the coast and in the interior, many of them trained in B.C., have admitted that they could take up Nature Study in school with more enthusiasm and greater efficiency if they knew a little more of nature and the methods of teaching from living specimens. Nothing is more infectious than enthusiasm, an enthusiastic teacher will produce enthusiastic students, but no teacher can become really enthusiastic in Nature Study through book work alone, consequently many children miss much of the profit and pleasure of nature study lessons, in spite of careful preparation on the part of the teacher dependent on books.

Most teachers, who have the interest of their profession at heart, are ready to take advantage of anything that will increase their efficiency or make their work easier, but we find, in every trade and profession, some, who merely work for what they can get out of it, and the teaching profession is no exception. No objection can be taken to that statement except by those to whom the remark applies.

The lectures held by our Society during the winter, and the excursions during the summer, give members an opportunity of acquiring a considerable amount of knowledge not obtained from books, they combine theoretical work with practical experience, and those who attend all the meetings and outings are soon surprised at how much they learn with little effort.

It is on behalf of the children attending our schools that we seek to help teachers, we look to the boys and girls of today to become our future members. Children are naturally interested in flowers, animals and other phenomena of nature, and we want to see their interest maintained and strengthened instead of being crushed out during their school days; it has been amply proved and is now accepted by the highest educational authorities that Nature Study, properly taught and correlated with other school subjects, turns out brighter children with a greater measure of originality than the old system of cramming and burdening the memory with book work. Anything we do to make the education of our Children more of a pleasure and less of a grind will tend to improve the attitude of our young men and young women towards educational pursuits, and help to produce the best type of citizens capable of thinking for themselves and employing their talents for the good of the community.