108 
cannot be compared with such courses offered fifteen or twenty 
years ago. Is it because it has become more biological? No. 
is because the teaching of biological principles has ceased to be 
the center of the course, and the course has so changed that the 
pupils’ interests have become more nearly that center. 
Some of the most successful courses have so broadened that 
while they are called biology courses, they are really general 
science with emphasis upon the biological phases of the environ- 
ment. This is trending in the right direction, but should we stop 
here? If the pupils’ interests were confined to the biological 
phases of their environment, then we have reached our goal in 
the development of the first year science course. But the pupils 
are interested in the common things about them, regardless of 
whether they are biological, physical, chemical, astronomical, or 
physiographical. In fact, many of the things in which they are 
interested may borrow from a number of these aspects of natural 
science. 
To restrict the pupils to any one phase of their environment— 
whether biological, physical, or chemical—violates their interest 
and the spirit of introductory science. Large numbers of pupils 
leave high school at the end of the first year. They need the gen- 
eral view of their environment, rather than the restricted view of 
the special science. 
The aims of introductory science may be condensed as follows: 
First, to put the pupil in possession of certain fundamental facts 
concerning his environment which may incidentally form a basis 
for future science work, but, what is more important now, give 
him an explanation of “aie everyday activities and furnish him 
with a fund of usable facts gained by the only true process of 
learning. Second (and even more important than the first, since 
the first depends upon it), to encourage and develop the spirit of 
inquiry—of wanting to know how things happen. Also to cul- 
tivate the essentials of scientific thinking, the attitude of inde- 
pendent judgment, of openmindedness and of reliance upon facts. 
These aims cannot be accomplished if pupils are carefully kept 
in one pigeon hole. 
Does this broader, introductory course eliminate biology from 
the first year? Ask the biology teacher of first year pupils what 
