Simple and Truthful Observations

I've been reading the first part of Anna Botsford Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study -- a few quotes about what nature study is and what it should do for the child:

Nature-study is, despite all discussions and perversions, a study of nature; it consists of simple, truthful observations that may, like beads on a string, finally be threaded upon the understanding and thus held together as a logical and harmonious whole. Therefore, the object of the nature-study teacher should be to cultivate in the children powers of accurate observation and to build up within them understanding.

From the Introduction to Handbook of Nature Study

WHAT NATURE-STUDY SHOULD Do FOR THE CHILD (summary)

First, but not most important, nature-study gives the child practical and helpful knowledge.

Nature-study cultivates in the child a love of the beautiful; it brings to him early a perception of color, form, and music....

But, more than all, nature-study gives the child a sense of companionship with life out-of-doors and an abiding love of nature. Let this latter be the teacher's criterion for judging his or her work.....

Perhaps the most valuable practical lesson the child gets from nature-study is a personal knowledge that nature's laws are not to be evaded. ....

Out-of-door life takes the child afield and keeps him in the open air, which not only helps him physically and occupies his mind with sane subjects, but keeps him out of mischief.....