Viking_Yearbook_68

"If you can't master all fields, you have to be at least aware of them. Most of us have to be satisfied with mastery of one area . But we should be interested in other fields of study if only in a pas– sive way. The man I worked for on my doctorate said you should spend the first half of your life studying your field, then branch out. It would be more ideal to do it all your life. " Dr . Dennis Boddy teaches general science, a class in biology and a class in the history of science. These classes are taken mainly by non-majors. " I ask my class once a year how they feel about the science requirement. Quite a few of them don't like it. People outside the field ot science tend to re– sist science. I have a tendency to say they hate it. That's part of the challenge in the classes I teach. I think they like the labs least. "Ideally all classes should have labs. The lab work is the real experience of learning. If you are studying poetry, you should learn to write as well as read it; it's almost necessary. "Learning is probably best when it is an informal experience. Somehow the word becomes confined to Biology 101, which meets from nine to ten on Tues– days and Thursdays and begins in Janu– ary and ends in March. The formal part of education is only a means to an end." 29