" This sounds visionary and impracticable for
children of the common school, especially when we know that much lower
aims have not been successfully reached. In fact it cannot be said
that the natural sciences have any recognized standing in the common
school course. But it is worth the while to inquire whether natural
sciences will ever be taught as they should be until the best
attainable aims become the dominant principles for guiding teachers.
Stripped of its rhetoric, the above mentioned aim, "an understanding of
life and of the unity in nature," may prove a practical and inspiring
guide to the teacher.
If we look upon nature as a field of observation and study which can be
grasped as a whole both as a work of creation and as contributing in
multiplied ways to man's needs, its proper study gives a many-sided
culture to the mind. This leading purpose will bring into relation and
unity all the subordinate aims of science teaching, such as
information, utility, training of the senses and judgment, and of the
power to compare and classify.
For the accomplishment of this great purpose of gaining _insight_ into
nature's many-sided activities, there are several simple means not yet
mentioned.
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