The Dramatic Method of Teaching #246928

That I came to the conclusion that there was a great need of a radical change. So little was there of initiative or originality on the part of the children themselves, that I felt sure nothing short of a surgical operation — a com plete cutting away of old habits and the formation of a new school tradition — would meet the case. The first aid which I invoked was nature study, mainly from its aesthetic standpoint and from the verv first I realized that, to be Of any value, it must be nature real/y sfua'z'ea' by t/ze c/zz'la' flimsdf. It must not be nature filtered through pic torial illustration, textbook, dried specimen, and scientific terms, finally dribbled into passive children's minds minus the joy of assimilation; but it must be the real study of living and working nature, absorbed in the open air under conditions which allow for free movement under natural discipline. And Since nature is the storehouse from which poet and artist draw their inspiration, it naturally follows that we found it but a short step from the study of the open book of nature into the Elysian fields of literature and the arts. Nature study then became the basis of every possible lesson; and the school nature gardens and na ture rambles supplied subject matter for lessons In Singing, reading, writing, arithmetic, drawing, painting, recitation, composition, grammar, and much of the geography.