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A Bird-Day Program

Washington Normal School ]

IRTHDAYS, red letter days, arbor days and bird days! The two hundred days of the school calendar are hardly sufficient to meet the special demands made upon them in the interests of history, literature, and philanthropy. After all, is not this call for specialization something of a reproach to both home and If the child is symmetrically developed, harmoniously will not all these influences find their proper place and expression in his life in the regular course of events? But in the meantime since ‘days’ are ordained, it is highly important that they shall be celebrated in a manner to make lasting impressions on the minds and hearts of children. The mental hysteria resulting from the spasmodic, sentimental fervor worked up for this cause to-day, and for that tomorrow, is to be strongly condemned.

As in every other subject, an interest in birds should be based upon the knowledge gained by the child primarily through his own observations and experiences, supplemented and enriched later by what he reads or has told him. The interest thus aroused leads to sympathy and love as enduring as life itself.

Hence the Bird-Day program should mark the culminating rather than the initial point of bird study for the year.

The children should be led to anticipate it. and should be prepared for it in as many ways and for as long a time as possible. All that nature lovers have written or poets sung will have deeper significance after the child′s contact with the birds of his neighborhood, as seen in parks, woods, or fields. To see their pictures is not enough. Field Work alone can give the stimulus which leads to fellowship, sympathy, love, and protection.

For young children especially, interest is most readily aroused through the study of the activities which ally bird and child. The character and the adaptation of birds′ clothing, foods and homes to their peculiar needs and environment; glimpses of nest-life; characteristic traits; disposition; the cleverness of the parent birds in outwitting enemies and protecting the young; the skillful uses of tools—bills and claws—are all readily appreciated by the children. Add to these, studies in protective coloration, migration, the relation  