492 SISTER M. OLIVIA 



ology, will also be unique with respect to content and method- 

 ology at each point along the continuum of formal education. 

 The content of natural science encompasses most of the ex- 

 periences of man, but the content must be ordered for the sake 

 of teaching. The subject matter for each of the teachers must 

 be ordered to the ultimate goal of the teaching program. It is 

 not sufficient for the college faculty alone to be concerned with 

 the philosophical dimensions of science. To maintain a con- 

 tinuum, each step forward in the knowledge of science must be 

 directed toward the final goal. A point may partake of the 

 continuum of a straight line only if it is related to the limiting 

 positions of the two end points. So, too, the work of the indi- 

 vidual teacher becomes part of the entire curriculum when he is 

 properly oriented within the whole and recognizes the unique 

 contribution that his teaching alone can make. Consequently 

 each teacher must realize the goal that has been set and the 

 means at each level of moving forward toward the goal. 



Methodology of Each School 



At the elementary level, the course in nature study provides 

 the child with a rich fund of facts about the physical and bio- 

 logical world. The approach, however, is through the beautiful, 

 the wonderful, the awe-inspiring. This aesthetic presentation 

 does not hinder the essential requisite of order. In fact, it fosters 

 a closer interrelation between science and man's cultural his- 

 tory. Emphasis is placed on the facts of nature and not on the 

 theories of explanation. Consequently, we readily acknowledge 

 that the elementary curriculum does not attempt to teach 

 " science," but brings the child to observe nature, to question 

 its regularity and to puzzle over its drive and purposefulness. 

 These personal experiences of the early grades are gradually 

 augmented by reading about or repeating many of the experi- 

 mental findings of modern science, but the teacher is careful to 

 distinguish between the facts and the hypotheses suggested to 

 explain them. Moreover, the teacher is expected to be aware of 

 the important philosophical facts revealed by these simple 



