As I was reading my February issues of the NSTA publications, it occurred to me how there is a common thread among them. The lead article in The Science Teacher is “Back to the Future?” which looks at nature-study as an approach to teaching. The whole issue of Science Scope is devoted to environmental studies, and a wonderful article in Science and Children shows what students can learn from walking a nature trail.
As I reflected on these writings, I looked over at a needlework on the wall of my den. It was a quotation from the poet Wordsworth: Come forth into the light of things – Let Nature be your teacher. These words were my guiding principle as a life science teacher, but at the time, I never could find the entire poem. BI (before Internet) I would have to have gone through all of his poems to find the right one. But with the Internet, I decided to google the lines and see what I could find. I was surprised to see how it resonates with this month’s themes of nature study and environmental activities. Here it is.
THE TABLES TURNED
AN EVENING SCENE ON THE SAME SUBJECT
UP! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you’ll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?
The sun, above the mountain’s head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.
Books! ’tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There’s more of wisdom in it.
And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.
She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless–
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:–
We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
The title is a little obscure, but apparently this is a follow-up to another poem in which someone criticizes Wordsworth for daydreaming by a lake and not paying attention to his books. Although this poem is from 1798, does it still speak to us in terms of what is important for students (and for ourselves)?