PROMOTING "NATURE STUDY" IN SCHOOLS. 33
Mr. Wilfred Mark Webb, F.L.S., Honorary Secretary
to the Selborne Society, then spoke the following address1:—
ON THE USE OF EXHIBITS IN THE PROMOTION OF
NATURE-STUDY, AND THE SERVICES THAT MAY
BE RENDERED BY LOCAL MUSEUMS.
By Wilfred Mark Webb, F.L.S.
It is a pleasant task to open a discussion at this Conference, which is the
latest effort of the Essex Field Club. Although I shall have something to say
with regard to the Educational Exhibits here, at Shepherd's Bush, my chief
object is to offer a few remarks and suggestions as to how Museums, and
especially those of the Essex Field Club, may help in the promotion of Nature-
Study and the study of Nature.
It will not be amiss at the outset to say that the Club has done its best to pave
the way for the work under consideration. In every discussion which one hears
on the question of Nature-Study it is shown that the whole matter turns on the
question of teachers. The right sort has to be found, and the right training must
be given to them. When technical instruction was first introduced into Essex,
the body responsible for its carrying out was a Joint Committee of the County
Council and the Essex Field Club, and for many years teachers have been trained
in matters appertaining to the country, and Essex was among the foremost, if it
was not the first, of the counties to introduce biological teaching.
In the second place no one needs to be reminded of what the Club has done
with regard to preserving open spaces in the county, and few places can compare
with Epping Forest as a field for Nature Study, Lastly we come to the
Museums which the Club has founded as depositories of authentic specimens of
local natural history, for the teaching of Zoology and Botany, and, if possible, for
the promotion of Nature-Study.
In the educational section of this Exhibition much Nature-Study work is
displayed, and as there has been no big exhibition in London specially devoted
to the matter for several years, one is glad of the opportunity of taking stock, as
it were, and of seeing how Nature-Study stands. I feel that it is very necessary
to explain what I mean by Nature-Study, for, unless this is done, any criticisms
or suggestions that maybe made are liable to have but little value. It was not
the claims of natural history as a subject of instruction that inspired educational
reformers to welcome Nature-Study. As a matter of fact its introduction was
due to a revolt against didactic teaching and the passive reception of second-
hand facts on the part of the scholar.
Those who have studied the question carefully will agree with me when I say
that Nature-Study deals with a method of education ; it is a point of view, a.
manner of showing the student how to teach himself, and a means of correlating
many of the matters ordinarily dealt with in schools. It is not a "subject ; the
matters considered are by no means confined to those which come under the
scope of zoology or botany, and although economic questions may be justly seized
upon as being of importance, the name "Nature-Study" is not to be applied to
1 It may he mentioned as showing Mr. Webb's capabilities for speaking on the subject
that he is one of the authors (with Mr. Davenport Hill) of the Eton Nature-Study ami
Observational Lessons, formerly Lecturer on Botany and the Principles of Horticulture
under the Surrey County Council, Senior Assistant Lecturer on Biology to the Essex
County Council, and Editor of the Journal of Malacology. Also Editor of The Country Home,
and one of the acting promoters of several Nature-Study Exhibitions in London.—Ed.
C