Abstract
HOWEVER fully it may be admitted by the few that it is important, nay essential, that all members of the community, whatever their station or occupation, should during their school career receive some instruction in the elements of natural science, the general public have not as yet had brought home to them with sufficient clearness that, just as a knowledge of foreign languages is essential to all who are brought into intercourse with foreigners, so in like manner is a correct knowledge of the elements of natural science of direct practical value to all in their daily intercourse with Nature, apart from the pleasure which such knowledge affords. In fact, judged from a purely utilitarian standpoint, the advantages to be derived from even the most elementary acquaintance with what may be termed the science of daily life are so manifold that, if once understood by the public, the claims of science to a place in the ordinary school course must meet with universal recognition. To quote Huxley2: “Knowledge of Nature is the guide of practical conduct; . . . any one who tries to live upon the face of this earth without attention to the laws of Nature will live there for but a very short time, most of which will be passed in exceeding discomfort: a peculiarity of natural laws, as distinguished from those of human enactment, being that they take effect without summons or prosecution. In fact, nobody could live for half a day unless he attended to some of the laws of Nature; and thousands of us are dying daily, or living miserably, because men have not yet been sufficiently zealous to learn the code of Nature.”
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Natural Science in Schools 1 . Nature 31, 19–22 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/031019a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/031019a0