Natural science and education - Reflections on the pertinence of genetic learning

Natural science is an element of modern culture the significance of which c annot be overestimated. With its breakneck progress in the accumulation of findings natural science research forms the indispensable basis for all eff orts to guarantee and further develop our thoroughly technicalized living c onditions. Accordingly, the crucial role played by natural science in the b uilding of our external is unquestionable. Doubtful, however, remains the s ignificance of natural science knowledge for the formation of the inner wor ld of man in our culture, and furthermore unclear is its relation to the ot her cultural spheres which contribute to the formation of a person. At the end of that century in the course of which natural science was finally adde d in the range of subjects to be taught at the Gymnasium, the educational m ission of instruction in natural science is still not yet clearly defined. This ist revealed by the situation in instruction in physics today as well as by the scholastic achievement in this field.