Brandwein Paul F., Drapkin Herbert (eds.) You and Science: Science for Better Living. Teacher's Manual and Resource Guide

New Edition. — New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1960. — 226 p.General science is a course of scientific study and investigation which has its roots in the common experience of children and which does not exclude any one of the fundamental special sciences. It seeks to elucidate the general principles observable in nature, without emphasizing the traditional division into specialized subjects until such time as this is warranted by the increasing complexity of the field of investigation, by the developing unity of separate parts of that field, and by the intellectual progress of the pupils. Thus does the British Science Master’s Association characterize the nature of general science in its report. It is a good statement. General science is, in a sense, the oldest of the sciences. Aristotle was a “general scientist”; so was Galileo. One could hardly call either of them a chemist, a biologist, or a physicist. General science is perhaps an unfortunate term; the adjective
hardly indicates the purpose of the course. We do not say general physics, general chemistry, or general biology; we should, because these are very general treatments of the areas concerned, but we don’t.