The actual phenomenon or object – b

The actual phenomenon or object – be it a manifestation of electricity, or the anatomy of the body, or the group behavior of chimpanzees – is the real source of wonder [….] Focusing on the actuality of the phenomenon, with its richness along many dimensions of human experience and its extraordinary wholeness, is not incompatible with a goal of ‘cultural literacy’ or ‘understanding of mechanisms’. […] For this purpose, a study of the more natural and less technological manifestations of electricity and magnetism which fascinated the early investigators might be preferable, with gradual extension to construction of simple prototypes of electrical apparatus only a few years later, and ‘real’ electricity and magnetism later. (Witz, 1996, pp. 601–602)