BIOLOGY A

Any fair comment on Biology A must begin by admitting that it has purged itself of its onetime fullness and that its faults are now those of conception and not of execution, being duplicated in almost all the other elementary science courses. Using Biology A as one of several possible examples, these faults can be found out by setting the results of the course and the theoretical demands of the science requirement side by side. Clearly the aim of the requirement is not that each graduate have a technical knowledge of some one science, but that he be cognizant of science as one avenue of human endeavor, that he attain a theoretical grasp.

The ideal introduction to a science would have to devote the larger part of its time to getting the factual basis, but it would then go on to study the open questions and problems to which the details lead, the hypotheses and inclusive formulae developed from them. It would thus foster an intelligent and critical view of its subject-matter. This is not outside the scope of genuine scientific procedure, which has always been and should be self-critical, and fully aware of its own limitations.

Biology A has progressed steadily in the direction of the ideal in the past few years. Laboratories, by the elimination of an unnecessary quantity of drawing work, have been made more beneficial, but they still tend to become mere lecture periods of double duration. There is in general a great deal of duplication in the content of the reading, the lectures, and the laboratory periods. All of these are overmuch concerned with terminology, classification, and the minutiae of fact. The course would be improved by leaving such rote work to be done outside of class, reserving the lectures and section meetings for consideration of more advanced points, the theories, and the many problems which biology is facing today. Reading assigned in other than the one textbook, in the controversial literature of biology, would be excellent. If, in addition, a few lectures in frank criticism of scientific achievement or in the history of biology were to be given, a genuine advance towards the wanted liberalization would be made.

In making such changes as these there is of course one danger, to be averted at any cost, that Biology A degenerate into a general survey; laboratory, investigation and exact knowledge must remain the foundation material of any science course.