The purpose of this series is to outline the subject of science, but to do so we must begin with nature study. Charlotte Mason emphasized that children cannot start their science education with a formal review of the sciences. Instead, she said that “out-of-door nature study lays the foundation for science.” (vol. 3, p. 281)
Nature study allows children to learn necessary information about how things work. Without this foundation, science becomes just a matter of mastering the subject, through memorization but not through understanding. This idea is supported by the alarming trend university professors are seeing in their students. Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods, quotes Frank Wilson, professor of neurology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, as he explains:
Instructors in medical schools find it increasingly difficult to teach how the heart works as a pump, Wilson says it’s “because the students have so little real world experience; they’ve never siphoned anything, never fixed the car, never worked on a fuel pump, may not even have hooked up the garden hose. For a whole generation of kids, direct experiences in the backyard, in the tool shed, in the fields and woods, has been replaced by indirect learning, through machines.” (p. 67)
In his book, Louv primarily focuses on the need for children to be allowed and encouraged to spend free time outside, and we know that Charlotte Mason agreed with that necessity because she instructed us to take our children out for at least three hours each day in all but “very bad” weather. However, though nature study and outside time overlap in some ways, they are not entirely the same thing. For example, you may spend only 10-minutes doing an object lesson before the children run off to climb a tree or play games, or you may take a long nature walk, leaving little to no time for outside play.
Free time in nature is important, but we cannot trust that our children’s attention will naturally be fixed long enough to learn something about the world around them. In Home Education, Charlotte Mason warned:
But watch him at his investigations: he flits from thing to thing with less purpose than a butterfly amongst the flowers, staying at nothing long enough to get the good out of it. It is the mother’s part to supplement the child’s quick observing faculty with the habit of attention. She must see to it that he does not flit from this to that, but looks long enough at one thing to get a real acquaintance with it. (p. 140)
Nature study differs from free time outside because we are making a concerted effort to cultivate the habit of attention, through the use of all five senses. One of Charlotte Mason’s students, Christine Cooper, noted, “During the first six or seven years of his life the child should learn almost entirely through his senses, and nature study affords the only perfect means of sensory training,” (PR 20, p. 337)
This sensory training is vital for future science lessons as our children are learning to observe keenly, but the habits of attention and discrimination are also preparing him for several other school lessons, such as reading, dictation, and math. Also, the use of a nature notebook or merely telling about the things he has seen, will not only help him value accuracy in his science notebook in future years, but it will also help build language skills now. Charlotte Mason said:
With his knowledge of things, his vocabulary grows; for it is a law of the mind that what we know, we struggle to express. This fact accounts for many of the apparently aimless questions of children; they are in quest, not of knowledge, but of words to express the knowledge they have. (vol. 1, p. 68)
Children are adept at asking questions when they are little, but too often adults just provide answers instead of allowing the child to think about it further. Miss Mason said:
The child must think, get at the reason why of things for himself, every day of his life, and more each day than the day before. Children and parents both are given to invert this educational process. The child asks ‘Why?’ and the parent answers…Let the parent ask ‘Why?’ and the child produce the answer, if he can. After he has turned the matter over and over in his mind, there is no harm in telling him––and he will remember it––the reason why. Every walk should offer some knotty problem for the children to think out––”Why does that leaf float on the water, and this pebble sink?” and so on. (vol. 1, p. 153-54)
Of course, the habit of asking questions is essential in the field of science. In the 1903 article “Educational Value of Natural History,” Mrs. Sieveking quoted Professor Miall at the Royal Institution to say, “the student of natural history should not be content with facts, but should make them, by personal research, a basis of thought-building and reasoning out for himself.” (PR 14, p. 647) That is still true today, and is true whether the person is a student in Form 1 wondering about the seeds pods of the Shepherd’s Purse or they are a professional chemist.
Once again, more than simply a foundation for science lessons, learning to think is a skill that prepares your children for all school lessons, as well as prepares them for life in general. In the book Writing to Know, William Zinsser explains that writing what you have learned helps you hone your understanding and forces you to make sense of the ideas. It’s then that a person is actually learning.
You can see that in a very real way nature study lays the foundation for science. It’s through nature study that children:
- learn the habit of observation and accurate recording,
- learn about the laws and the order of our world, and
- learn the art of asking questions and communicating both those questions and their ideas.
Still, there are other benefits, that may seem to be of no use to science. For one, nature study is thoroughly good for us — physically, intellectually, and spiritually. Charlotte Mason said it “will be a source of delight through life,” (vol. 1, p. 61) and that a love of Nature, …, “will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour.” (vol. 1, p. 71)
Louv backed up Charlotte Mason’s old ideas with modern thought: “A growing body of research links mental, physical, and spiritual health directly to our association with nature–in positive ways.” (p. 3)
Have you ever sat in a field or under a tree and listened to the birds, and then returned to your regularly scheduled activities with a more peaceful demeanor and more patience? Miss Mason recognized nature as an antidote to our stressful lives: “We are an overwrought generation, running to nerves as a cabbage runs to seed; and every hour spent in the open is a clear gain, tending to the increase of brain power and bodily vigour, and to the lengthening of life itself.” (vol. 1, p. 42)
Louv even related a study that showed that students do better on a test if they have had an opportunity to spend a few minutes in natural surroundings beforehand. Our minds are working in the background all the time to keep us safe and well prepared for whatever might come next. Time in nature lets all of that processing simmer down. Our minds have a chance to settle, and the time of rest allows for greater mental stamina later.
Not only will our spirits be revived in the here and now, but we can store it up for the future. Just reflecting on a lovely time spent in nature in the past can give you a sense of peace later when things get hard. This is a gift we can and should give to our children. We cannot save them from the hard times they will inevitably face in the future, but we can fill their childhood with beautiful mental pictures that will provide peace in those times.
Another valuable reason for nature study is that one learns to recognize and appreciate real beauty. Our culture is adept at replacing beauty with some form of twaddle or another, thus diminishing our taste for beauty. It is a great gift to our children to teach them to know the difference. Charlotte Mason said:
Beauty is everywhere––in white clouds against the blue, in the gray bole of the beech, the play of a kitten, the lovely flight and beautiful colouring of birds, in the hills and the valleys and the streams, in the wind-flower and the blossom of the broom. What we call Nature is all Beauty and delight, and the person who watches Nature closely and knows her well, like the poet Wordsworth, for example, has his Beauty Sense always active, always bringing him joy. (vol. 4, book 1, p. 41-42)
We should not allow God’s splendor here on earth to become wallpaper in the background of our lives. Instead, let us recognize aspects of it daily and help our children notice it as well. Cooper, explained:
A child’s sense of beauty grows from early contact with nature, and he cannot be fully blessed without this sense. Without it he is unable to appreciate in future years pure art, and many of the thoughts of great writers, particularly of our poets. Nature’s influence on the works and lives of many great men, again, shows us the importance of this study. (PR 20, p. 337-38)
When we recognize beauty and are filled to overflowing with it, we are enabled to “make it our business, as much as in us lies, to bring Beauty to places where it is not.” (vol. 4, book 1, p. 55) For some, this ability allows them to write or create beautiful music or art or literature, but for most of us, overflowing with beauty means loving our neighbor. The beauty we have to offer might look like friendship, hospitality, or service. As Jonathan Rogers, author of the Bark of the Bog Owl, pointed out, it’s these kinds of acts that say to someone, “See? this world is more beautiful than you thought.”
Cooper took this to the natural next step by suggesting: “Nature study may lead us to a greater reverence and a fuller appreciation of our God, the Creator of all. … The love of God is very much revealed to us in Nature study when we consider the multitude of wonderful ways He has provided for sustaining life, and of protection.” (PR 20, p. 339)
In the article “Children and Nature Study,” M. G. Walton noted:
when we are dealing with birds, animals, flowers and insects we are perhaps nearer to the Creator than in any other branch of science, for the natural world is the expression of the Creator’s personality in a form that is within the reach of all of us to comprehend in some measure. (PR 65, p. 69)
Of course, some will realize a benefit that could be considered nonessential compared to those mentioned above. For these people, nature will become a hobby. That was the case for our esteemed Charlotte Mason. She devoted her life to a lofty goal for the sake of the children of England and beyond, and with that came enormous responsibilities, and yet she scheduled several hours daily to spend in nature. Miss Curry, a House of Education Natural History teacher for a time, said of Miss Mason:
But are not those who look widest, to the great simple laws governing the universe also those whose lives are made lovely and pleasant by their delight in little things? It was so with Miss Mason. She loved the little things of the earth and found time for them amongst all her broad schemes for mankind in general. During the year in which it was my privilege to sit next to her at lunch, the conversation, I remember, veered round so often to what she had seen the day before as she drove along in her carriage, or to what we had seen while walking the lovely hills and vales about Ambleside. (PR 36, p. 536)
In closing, I echo Curry’s thoughts, “It seems to me that the whole of life is enriched by the study of Nature.” (PR 36, p. 534)
Further Resources:
ADE Episode 20: Nature Study
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
Out-Of-Door Life – An Outline
References
Cooper, Christine. “Nature Study.” Parents’ Review, vol. 20, 1909, pp. 337-348.
Curry, V. C. “Teaching of Nature Study.” Parents’ Review, vol. 36, 1925, pp. 529-537.
Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods. Algonquin Books, 2008.
Mason, Charlotte M. Home Education, 1886.
Mason, Charlotte M. School Education, 1904.
Mason, Charlotte M. Ourselves, Vol. 4, 1905.
Sieveking, Mrs. Edward. “Educational Value of Natural History.” Parents’ Review, vol. 14, 1903, p. 641-653.
Walton, M. G. “Children and Nature Study.” Parents’ Review, vol. 65, 1954, pp. 68-73.