College 113 



For many years geology met these specifications very 

 well in some colleges. For one thing, it turned out that 

 the elementary courses could be taught quite well without 

 requiring a prior knowledge of mathematics. Certain fa- 

 mous teachers also found ways of embellishing the course 

 with general observations on time and evolution and a 

 variety of other topics. If, in spite of this, symptoms of 

 boredom appeared in the classes, a field trip to a nearby 

 mountain, ravine, or seashore could be arranged. 



Physical anthropology similarly capitalized on the skill 

 of distinguished professors in imitating the stance and 

 habits of the great apes while cultural anthropology made 

 much of the fancied delights of coming of age in Samoa. 

 Charming as these interludes were, they did very Httle 

 to acquaint students with what science really is or to at- 

 tract them into scientific careers. Worst of all, they failed 

 ahnost completely to indicate the important place that 

 science occupies in modern society. 



Even though one should seek to develop a firm grasp 

 of the basic sciences during college, it is important not to 

 fall into the trap of devoting oneself exclusively to science 

 at this stage. The future scientist is also a human being 

 and a future citizen. In order to function well in all three 

 capacities, he needs to know as much as he can about 

 other approaches to the problem of Hving. Since many 

 people tend to be attracted to science partly because they 

 may have found themselves less effective in high school 

 courses in language, Hterature, and history, it may be 

 necessary to say a special word about the importance of 

 these subjects. At the start of one's scientific career it is 

 easy to overlook the fact that the successful scientist de- 

 pends heavily on a skillful use of language to communi- 

 cate his results to other people. 



As we found in Chapter 2, science is essentially a way 



