Imagine walking along a beautiful, wild-growing garden wall filled with fragrant flowers in every color imaginable. During the stroll, a single deep red rose stands out from the rest of the foliage to capture attention and beg closer examination. The silky crimson petals beg a tender touch filled with gentleness and driven by curiosity. The fibrous sage green stem dotted with razor-sharp thorns warns away that same inquisitive touch. The intoxicating fragrance draws the observer to bury their nose in the center of the flower. It produces a scent like nothing else on earth. Then, a busy bee buzzes by as it focuses on the fascinating task of pollination and honey making.
Still, the beauty of the rose begs thoughtful capture in a tattered and well-loved nature journal tucked away in a backpack. No single-colored pencil can create the flower's deep red color. It requires a mix of multiple hues of red and maroon to get the color as accurate as possible. Closer observation reveals the exact number of perfectly situated petals atop the strong knobby stem. Then, the questions come. What makes the rose smell so good? Why does it have thorns? How did the rose get so red? Why do bees visit the flower? And every question leads the observer to seek answers and develop a more profound knowledge of their surroundings. Each question leads back to the Author of Creation. He designed that rose and every captivating element of creation for a purpose, and every moment spent enjoying and observing creation turns the observer to the Creator, whether they realize it or not. This is Nature Study.
Charlotte Mason’s Educational Philosophy
Charlotte Maria Shaw Mason, a turn-of-the-century British educator and reformer, understood the power of Nature Study and included the scientific discipline in her philosophy of education, (See Appendix A) a philosophy focused on the personhood of a child and "three educational instruments––the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas" (Mason, 1904). Ms. Mason knew there was nothing more important in society than raising and educating children, and the importance has not diminished in the last hundred years since her death (Mason, 1886). She compared successful and thoughtful education to a delectable feast. Just as the body requires a varied diet to thrive, the mind also needs a varied diet of ideas to grow in knowledge and understanding. Her biographer said of a turn-of-the-century popular children's food, "The mind too hates 'everlasting tapioca' and must have a very various diet, selected not at random, but according to its natural requirements" (Cholmondeley, 1960: 175). Ms. Mason emphasized the failures of institutionalized education in her time, specifically how children can attend school and walk away without a single "vital idea" (Mason, 1896: 33). She considered knowledge of the universe an essential element of education full of indispensable ideas on which the mind should feed. Enter Nature Study.
How to Define Nature Study
Nature Study is nature's simple and unencumbered observation and enjoyment without pretense or forced engagement. Anna Botsford Comstock, a contemporary of Charlotte Mason and author of the Handbook of Nature Study, what has been called the Nature Study Bible, says Nature Study "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" (Comstock, 1911: 1). Done thoughtfully, Nature Study is an engaging experience where the child joyfully misses that there is learning involved. It is time to connect with Nature, carefully observe the living things nearby, and connect with the Creator of it all. While the definition of Nature Study may seem too simple and vague, "Every rock and crag, every hill and dell, invite and urge with irresistible power. In such a presence is it not almost presumptuous for me to speak of the mental broadening and the moral uplifting which come to the sympathetic, reverent, thinking student of nature as he surveys these mountains and valleys?" (Scott, 1894: 3). The power to connect and learn is there without provocation. God created that ability for us to draw closer to him and for him to reveal himself in his creation simply through observation and experience (The Holy Bible, 2001: Romans 1:20).
This paper argues that Nature Study's role in Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy is cultivating a profound connection between children, creation, and the Author of Creation. Nature Study guides them to experience the natural world as both a source of scientific knowledge and a reflection of the Creator's intelligent design, nurturing intellectual growth and a solid spiritual foundation for future in-depth knowledge of faith and theology.
Historical Context of Nature Study in Education
At the turn of the twentieth century, educational philosophers defined the goal of education as focusing on knowing God by studying his works, which fall into two categories: material and immaterial. The former encompassed the natural world, and the latter focused on humankind (Scott, 1896: 5). The thought was that all education fails if it does not point to something higher than the topic of study.
The objects of the work, as indeed of all education, are:
1. To interest the child in his surroundings, and arouse a sympathy and love for nature.
2. To cultivate his higher nature—spiritual, ethical, aesthetic—and to lead him to recognize God as the author of all things.
3. To develop his powers of observation, expression, and thought.
4. To form right habits.
5. To give him a knowledge of his physical environment (Scott, 1896: 10).
Charlotte Mason took this framework further by explaining that educators cannot divide education into spiritual and secular categories and experiences, as all knowledge comes from the Holy Spirit (Mason, 1904: 95). If all creation points the observer to the Author of Creation, then all study of creation gives a deeper understanding of the Creator. While educational philosophers in the late 19th century began to share these thoughts on scientific education and education overall, the traditional school system at the time was failing in many of the same ways it is today.
Implementing Nature Study
Charlotte Mason recommended that teachers take their students on a nature walk one afternoon per week, regardless of the weather or time of year, to allow them to experience and observe nature firsthand. Scientific education did not focus on memorizing terms or classifications from a textbook or flashcard; it revolved around consistent time spent in nature to develop keen powers of observation, a strong connection to and appreciation for natural phenomena and, hopefully, a subsequent relationship with the Creator partially driven by the depth of experience with his creation, as it all directs the observer back to him. Ms. Mason described an afternoon of Nature Study in this way:
On one afternoon in the week, the children (of the Practising [sic] School) go for a 'nature walk' with their teachers. They notice for themselves, and the teacher gives a name or other information as it is asked for, and it is surprising what a range of knowledge a child of nine or ten acquires. The teachers are careful not to make these Nature walks an opportunity for scientific instruction, as we wish the children's attention to be given to observation with very little direction. In this way they lay up that store of 'common information' which Huxley considered should precede science teaching; and, what is much more important, they learn to know and delight in natural objects as in the familiar faces of friends. The nature-walk should not be made the occasion to impart a Sort of Tit-Bits miscellany of scientific information. The study of science should be pursued in an ordered sequence, which is not possible or desirable in a walk. It seems to me a sine quânon of a living education that all school children of whatever grade should have one half-day in the week, throughout the year, in the fields. There are few towns where country of some sort is not accessible, and every child should have the opportunity of watching, from week to week, the procession of the seasons. Geography, geology, the course of the sun, the behaviour of the clouds, weather signs, all that the 'open' has to offer, are made use of in these walks; but all is incidental, easy, and things are noticed as they occur. It is probable that in most neighbourhoods there are naturalists who would be willing to give their help in the 'nature walks' of a given school (Mason, 1904: 237).
In addition to facilitating weekly nature walks, the teacher must provide a way for students to document their observations in fine detail and accuracy. Each student can carefully illustrate what they see and what interests them the most by providing a small, blank notebook and drawing or dry brush supplies. The field notebook belongs to the child and should not be graded or critiqued. The focus is “securing voluntary and happy observations from the pupils concerning their out-of-door interests” (Comstock, 1911: 14-15). Also, it is important to remember that while Nature Study easily integrates with subjects outside science, the lessons should not specifically focus on alternate subjects of study.
Lessons
Nature Study is not dumbed-down science for a young student's sake. It is well-rounded scientific instruction that follows the child's outdoor interests and the natural flow of the seasons. Start with the introduction of botany. In a traditional science class, each child opens a dry-as-dust textbook and begins by reviewing diagrams of flowers, memorizing each term on the diagram, and finally regurgitating those terms on an exam. Often, students forget the information they memorize just as quickly as they learn it. Now, let us follow the introduction of botany when implemented through Nature Study. Students venture out into a nearby field on a crisp, clear Spring afternoon. One child finds a tiny weed popping up through the nearby sidewalk, while another sees a captivating pale blue bloom peeking through newly sprouted grass seed. With a jewelry loupe in hand, each child carefully examines the flowers that caught their eye and painstakingly documents the petals and sepals, the stamen and pistil, the stem, and each detail they see in the field notebook. Then, the flowers are carefully snipped and lovingly carried back to a flower press. After being pressed and dried, each flower is added to the page next to their drawing in the field notebook.
While some students learn the proper botany terminology through curiosity and questioning of the teacher, and some do not, every student knows the flower they found and documented intimately. Each flower element studied is a genuine memory, not a baseless fact without connection to a living thing. When the students learn the scientific terms later in their education, each one will have real-life experience and observation to attach to it.
Role of the Teacher
The teacher or parent must start from a love of nature first. If the teacher does not love nature, the daily walks will lack wonder and passion for the children to imitate and absorb. Also, the teacher "must wink at some mistakes as natural to the child's way of looking at things; and try to make up for it by insisting on precision at a more appropriate time" (The Parents' Review, 1896: 332). Nature Study is not about precise data and memorization; those will come later and must. Nature Study does not exclude focused scientific study; it provides a solid foundation driven by appreciation and passion. The wonder and joy found in every living thing come first for each student and the teacher. The foundation given through direct connection and observation makes a longer impression, leading to more complete knowledge of the creation under observation.
Nature Study is fundamentally more fun if the teacher and student learn together. The joy of discovery will overflow from each observer and generate a shared passion. Richard Louv put it best:
If getting our kids out into nature is a search for perfection, or is one more chore, then the belief in perfection and the chore defeats the joy. It's a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children; it’s even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it's a lot more fun (Louv, 2005: 11).
In a time when most students spend their days inside sitting at a desk, the main job of the teacher is to ensure students are given time to spend outside exploring nature and meditating on creation.
Integration with Other Subjects
Nature Study aims to build observation skills, natural curiosity, and a connection with creation as a basis for scientific study. It does not purposefully cover multiple subjects in one experience. However, it naturally becomes the glue between many subjects.
Nature study thus becomes a basis for much of the work in language and drawing. It forms, in the earlier years in school, the best possible foundation for geography. It is as closely connected with reading and literature. It becomes, not merely a connecting link between school and out-of-doors, a bond of union and sympathy between teacher and pupils, but also a means of unifying and correlating most of the work of the school, particularly in the earlier years (Scott, 1896: 16).
If the desire to write a letter to a family member about their most recent nature walk serves as a Language Arts lesson, so be it. Or, if an afternoon spent observing water lilies fills the requirement for art and physical geography, wonderful. But forcing such relations and connections will likely deter the child from the original purpose of Nature Study. “It is legitimate and excellent training as long as the pupil does not discover that he is correlating” (Comstock, 1896: 16). Allow Nature Study to stand alone and each child to make his connections without force.
Connecting with Creation and the Creator
“How much nearer are we drawn to the author of nature, through these his works?” (Scott, 1894: 18) Turn-of-the-century educational philosophers repeatedly emphasized how Nature Study impacts the student, as the God of Creation is seen in and through all He created. Charles B. Scott went further when he said:
The study of nature misses its highest purpose, and the great purpose of all education, unless it leads the child from nature up to the Author of nature. Unless the seen points the child to the unseen, from care and protection he looks up to a Protector, through function and purpose and plan he sees a Planner, nature has not revealed to teacher and pupils its greatest thought, its grandest lesson (Scott, 1894: 16–17).
An introduction to God through His creation is the perfect window into who God is to each of His children. Observers see how even flowers trust in God’s provision (Matthew 6:28–33), and how God cares for sparrows and all birds (Matthew 6:26) when they are so much less valuable than those created in His image (Matthew 10:29–31). He reminds us of the value of demanding work through the work of the ants (Proverbs 6:6). Repeatedly, we are told to consider and meditate upon God’s creation, which always points us back to Him.
Disadvantages of Reduced Outside Time
With studies showing incarcerated inmates spending more time outside than children (Hunt et al., 2016) and mental health disorders on the rise, including nature-deficit disorder (Louv, 2005), the lack of time spent in nature is deeply felt by this generation. In one study, 8-year-old children were better able to identify Pokémon characters than common neighborhood flora or fauna, such as trees found in their yard (Balmford et al., 2002).
Assessing Nature’s influence upon any stage of development is difficult; its presence is subtle, yet encompassing. One way to recognize the extent of its influence is an attempt to eliminate it. Institutions represent a human attempt to 'filter out' nature’s unpredictable and mysterious influences. We create bureaucracies in order to be efficient and systematic (Goodridge, 2007: 24).
Inmates included in the study mentioned above expressed their views on outdoor time, describing it as the highlight of their day and beneficial for their mental health. Meanwhile, guards at the same prison warned that reducing outdoor time could lead to significant problems within the facility (Randall, 2018). Whether the introduction of electronic devices or the ever-growing lack of green space, the reasons not to spend time outside are increasing exponentially. Louv (2005) proposed that the lack of time spent out-of-doors contributes to childhood obesity rates, mental health diagnoses such as depression, the steep rise in attention deficit hyperactive disorder and, as the evidence reviewed in this paper suggests, a connection with God through his creation.
The reasons to get kids outside are vastly important. If a child spends an afternoon contemplating a single weed growing through a crack in the sidewalk, they can learn about flowers, how each one grows, resilience, and even about a potential foraged food source. Despite the sound of city traffic in the background, that moment of Nature Study will be valuable.
Environmental Stewardship
“The question is not, ––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care?” (Mason, 1925: 170). Day after day and week after week spent in Nature Study will teach children to care about the environment in which they live. As they experience God's creation firsthand, they will grow in love with the animals, plants, and insects they observe and document with care and develop an overall sense of compassion. As that sense of caring develops, so will the desire to steward God's creation.
Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature (Louv, 2005: Introduction).
Nature Study is an integral element of Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy. It inspires children to connect with creation and its Creator. The following steps allow educators and students to effectively integrate Nature Study into their weekly schedules and overall educational practices.
• Make Nature a Priority: Regularly set aside time for nature walks and outdoor exploration.
• Promote Observation: Encourage children to observe their surroundings and ask thoughtful questions.
• Record Findings: Equip children with journals or notebooks to document their insights and sketches.
• Learn Together: Engage with your child in natural exploration, sharing experiences and learning about the environment.
Time spent in nature is valuable. Children develop keen observation skills, natural curiosity, a desire to steward their environment, and a window into the nature of their Creator. In addition, Nature Study is a form of education that creates a lifelong love of learning when added to Charlotte Mason’s broader educational philosophy. Her philosophy, specifically Nature Study, supports spiritual and emotional health and a deep connection to creation and the Author of Creation.
Angelica Kajiwara 2025
Appendix
Charlotte Mason’s 20 Educational Philosophy Principles
1. Children are born persons.
2. They are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good and for evil.
3. The principles of authority on the one hand, and of obedience on the other, are natural, necessary and fundamental; but––
4. These principles are limited by the respect due to the personality of children, which must not be encroached upon whether by the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence, or by undue play upon any one natural desire.
5. Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments––the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas. The P.N.E.U. Motto is: "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life."
6. When we say that "education is an atmosphere," we do not mean that a child should be isolated in what may be called a 'child-environment' especially adapted and prepared, but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to the child’s level.
7. By "education is a discipline," we mean the discipline of habits, formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structures to habitual lines of thought, i.e., to our habits.
8. In saying that "education is a life," the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.
9. We hold that the child's mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is prepared to deal; and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does foodstuffs.
10. Such a doctrine as e.g. the Herbartian, that the mind is a receptacle, lays the stress of education (the preparation of knowledge in enticing morsels duly ordered) upon the teacher. Children taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge; and the teacher's axiom is,' what a child learns matters less than how he learns it."
11. But we, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum; taking care only that all knowledge offered him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their nforming ideas. Out of this conception comes our principle that,––
12. "Education is the Science of Relations"; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of––
"Those first-born affinities
"That fit our new existence to existing things."
13. In devising a SYLLABUS for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:
a. He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
b. The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e., curiosity)
c. Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.
14. As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should 'tell back' after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read.
15. A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning, summarising. and the like. Acting upon these and some other points in the behaviour of mind, we find that the educability of children is enormously greater than has hitherto been supposed, and is but little dependent on such circumstances as heredity and environment. Nor is the accuracy of this statement limited to clever children or to children of the educated classes: thousands of children in Elementary Schools respond freely to this method, which is based on the behaviour of mind.
16. There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management to offer to children, which we may call 'the way of the will' and 'the way of the reason.'
17. The way of the will: Children should be taught, (a) to distinguish between 'I want' and 'I will.' (b) That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire but do not will. (c) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting. (d) That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This adjunct of the will is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort, that we may 'will' again with added power. The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be deprecated, as tending to stultify and stereotype character, It would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development, and that human nature needs the discipline of failure as well as of success.)
18. The way of reason: We teach children, too, not to 'lean (too confidently) to their own understanding'; because the function of reason is to give logical demonstration (a) of mathematical truth, (b) of an initial idea, accepted by the will. In the former case, reason is, practically, an infallible guide, but in the latter, it is not always a safe one; for, whether that idea be right or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs.
19. Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. These principles should save children from some of the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level than we need.
20. We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and 'spiritual' life of children, but teach them that the Divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their Continual Helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life.
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