This is why I teach

November 18, 2014 • 3:53 pm

by Greg Mayer

A student just came to my office to enroll in my evolution class for next semester. As he was leaving, he said, “By the way, after taking your zoology class, I got Why Evolution Is True and Your Inner Fish, and really enjoyed them.”

Sometimes, it all seems to be worthwhile.

78 thoughts on “This is why I teach”

  3. I would have done & said same if I were 25 years younger, lived in Chicago and attended your Uni. I’ve read quite a few evolution books including by Mr Dawkins and WEIT was my clear favorite.

    1. Me too, but I would’ve used a bunch of double negatives just to be annoying because that’s how I rebelled when I was younger. 😉

      1. When I was a teen, I went through a period of saying “ain’t,” just to be ornery.
        Born to be wild, that’s me.

      3. In Algebra I my freshman year, the teacher, having briefly stepped out, returned and announced to the class:

        “All those who have not talked without permission, raise your hand.”

        Six of us raised our hands, and did not have to do extra homework.

        1. I once read a book containing the line, “If this is not unethical, and I do not think it is . . .”
          I had to read it a couple of times before I could figure out if the author thought that it was ethical or not.

    1. I was a Family Studies major in undergrad. At 32, I’m back in school for Biology. I must attribute some of that to the reading I did on science and evolution (also to my concern for wildlife conservation).

      I really enjoyed Why Evolution is True. I recommend it often to those who want to know more about the topic or to those who deny the validity of evolution.

  7. I thought both books were excellent, and the TV adaptation of “Your Inner Fish” was superb: Shubin was a great presenter and they did not stint on the science to add to the “Wow” factor (my big criticism of the recent “Cosmos”).

    1. ‘ . . . they did not stint on the science to add to the “Wow” factor (my big criticism of the recent “Cosmos”).’

      Re “Cosmos”: the price “Cosmos” producers thought they had to pay in order to make a go of it on Faux?

    2. I would love to see a tv adaptation of WEIT similar to the original Cosmos or one of the better science channel shows. The redone Cosmos seemed to me to be light on science.

      1. This was a recent topic of discussion on here in response to a short video someone had made featuring a part of WEIT, if I recall correctly. The overwhelming response by WEIT commenters to the video seemed to be that a TV series on WEIT would be greatly welcomed by those of us who are familiar with Dr. Coyne’s brilliant work. I am hoping that someone who has the means and wherewithal will have stumbled upon this concept and make it a reality, turning WEIT into a series that would be another important step in the education of the masses about the truth in nature.

  8. A relative of ours getting a PhD in literature wants to embed a Darwinian theme in a novel she is planning. I suggested she read Why Evolution is True and Your Inner Fish before reading Darwin, which she did. She said WEIT was very well written and informative and Your Fishy Innards was quite interesting and thought it was a way to insure reading Origin with more understanding in a more historical context. I did express some mystification as to how she was going to incorporate Darwinism into a novel and have some misgivings about such an attempt but perhaps I lack imagination. Is there some Evolutionary Psychology reading that might be of use in this matter/ Any suggestions?

    1. I can think of lots of ways she could incorporate the science into a novel. It would depend on context and characters but I like when accurate science is included in regular fiction; of course I have no examples of this, I just like it. 🙂

      1. Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia is about chaos theory. Margaret Drabble’s novel The Peppered Moth is about the famous camouflage studies…I’m sure other examples will come to me in the middle of the night.

        1. Stephen Baxter has a novel titled “Evolution,” but I have not read it yet, and so can’t comment.

    2. The mind reels. Even a mundane romance novel would be rich in lessons about sexual selection and the territorial imperative. A pet in the novel is the result of thousands of years of artificial selection. A casual stroll through the park provides lessons in trophic levels, co-evolution, and even predation.

      1. I never thought I’d say this, but now I’d like to see a romance novel incorporating evolution. 🙂

    4. I read Darwin first (Origens) and that led me to Dawkins, Shubin, and this website. For more on Darwin, I recommend “Darwin and the Barnacle” by Rebecca Stott.

  9. It’s nice to hear about a student that is clearly interested in what he is learning and isn’t there to learn the minimum to get the degree. There is hope for the future after all! Of course, I agree that both books are great.

  10. Well, I can’t speak for everyone who has ever put chalk on the board (I date myself), but it was moments like that, that kept me going. When I look back on my life, those teaching moments are some of my absolutely fondest memories.

    You may eventually decide to do something else other than teaching (and no one should ever fault for doing it),but never forget that you had a lasting impact on the minds of those you touched.

    Be proud of that, where ever your future takes you.

    1. Oh, and by the way, my biggest regret in life was not pursuing a career in education.

      I’m not saying anything, I’m just saying.

      1. Unfortunately, in the U.S., pursuing a career in education involves at least a “minor” in baby sitting and strategies for dealing with borderline toxic levels of entitlement and “exceptionalism.”

        1. I never said that teaching was easy (it is far from easy). It could be perhaps, the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life (which is why I put the admonition that people shouldn’t be judged if they decide to not enter that field). I only presented a personal story; it was the most rewarding career I ever had.

          1. A thousand apologies if I am not clear in my meaning.

            I have substitute taught over nine years K-12, and find that I spend way too much time baby sitting/dealing with student misbehavior (as opposed to teaching/learning), which makes it harder than my teachers had it in that regard. My K-12 peers did not give teachers anywhere near the grief students give teachers in the early 21st century.

          2. Also, for the record, I also occasionally have my “This-is-Why-I-Teach” moments, and find it very rewarding. I just wish I had more, and that they were easier to come by.

          3. I do too. I live for those moments when you see the light come on, and hear, “oh, now I get it!”

          4. Well, let me apologize right back!

            I only taught at the JC level (these we were young men and women that really wanted to be there). I never had the K-12 experience.

          5. Very very rewarding and very difficult ( hate it when non-teachers say But you get the summers off!). Kind of like raising kids ( especially teenagers..).

    2. Am reminded of Apollo 15 Commander Dave Scott concluding a post-mission press conference by quoting Lucretius(?): “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a lamp to be lit.”

  11. I get those experiences every once in a while, when teaching about evolution. It really makes my day. Of course I steer them to WEIT, Inner Fish, and (if they are receptive to some creationist bashing mixed in) The Greatest Show on Earth. I also point them to the HHMI web site where you can stream great talks about evolution from T. White, S. Carroll, and D. Kingsley.

  13. The biology courses I took in HS and as distribution requirements in college just bored me ( seemed to be mainly memorizing phyla, etc.). Then came all the advances in molecular biology in the early-mid 70s and it was a whole new and exciting subject. I went back and just gobbled up the courses. Although I only taught HS bio once ( did mostly Math and CS) I have read incessantly ever since. WEIT and Fishy Innards( lol) and Dawkins’ Climbing Mount Improbable have been among my recent faves. Whenever my math students showed the slightest inkling of interest in reading, I was lending them books left, right, and even center.

  15. And on top of students you’ve personally influenced for the better, know that there are those of us non-students who are also grateful for the work you do.

    Passionate, engaged teachers like you, Jerry, and Matthew are indispensable for society at large.

    Thank you!

  17. And it does feel good, doesn’t it.
    My trainees get a harsh time from me. And when they come back on the other end of the ship-to-shore as supervising a new project …. it’s good.
    Descendents do not need to be biological in this Lamarkian culture.

  18. Sadly, in my experience, positive reinforcements are far less common than clueless complaints (“you never talked about that specific gene in class”) or abject pleading (“I need a B in this class to get into medical school”), but, yes, they are what keeps you going.

    1. “I need a B in this class to get into medical school”

      “Then you’d better go home and study!”

  19. Professor CC, what further reading did you recommend?
    I’ve read those and enjoyed them immensely and recommended them to youth around here. I’d like to hear from you what are several readings that go a little further. Dawkins, of course, who’s next?

    1. The first two, after WEIT and Greatest Show, almost have to be Donald Prothero’s “Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters” (on the fossil evidence) and Sean Carroll’s “The Making of the Fittest” (on the DNA evidence). Both are drop-dead amazing.

      Other great reads are:
      Shubin, “Your Inner Fish”
      Ridley, “The Red Queen”
      Weiner, “The Beak of the Finch”

      2. Daniel J. Fairbanks’s Relics of Eden: The Powerful Evidence of Evolution in Human DNA, if only because the DNA evidences strike down the idea of evolution being guided by God, more so than the homology and transitional fossils evidences described in “Inner Fish”.

      3. Weiner’s “Time, Love, Memory” was also a great intro to behavioural genetics of fruit flies, in the form of a biography of Seymour Benzer.

  21. Now I want to know what Greg’s book is going to be called –
    “Anole’s I have known” ?

    By the way, do people ever ask if a herpetologist studies herpes?!

      1. Perhaps just as certain mindsets some centuries ago (Middle Ages?) thought that harmony caused harm, violated the purity of the melody.

  22. Yes to all the above, esp Sean Carroll and Neil Shubin.

    My all-time favourite is Dawkins’ Ancestors’ Tale, because of its huge scope.

    Nick Lane’s book is also interesting, though a bit too technical for me in places (Krebs’Cycle etc!)

    I liked Carl Zimmer’s “At the Water’s Edge” as well.

    On fiction with an evolution sub-theme, I’m just reading the Pratchett/Baxter novel “The Long War”, which is fantasy of course, but which assumes a limitless number of worlds, all with their own version of evolutionary development, leading to multitudinous weird results.

    1. I agree:

      The Ancestor’s Tale is superb. (I wish they would come out with a Kindle version!)

      Also Zimmer’s At the Water’s Edge and Parasite Rex.

      The Selfish Gene is a must-read, IMO.

      More:

      Why We Get Sick by Nesse and Williams
      The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Skloot
      The Third Chimpanzee Diamond
      Genome Ridley

  25. Further reading that I loved:

    The Ancestor’s Tale, Dawkins
    At the Water’s Edge, Zimmer
    Parasite Rex., Zimmer
    The Selfish Gene, Dawkins
    Why We Get Sick, Nesse and Williams
    The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot
    The Third Chimpanzee, Diamond
    Genome, Ridley

    1. Don’t forget The Blind Watchmaker, which, considering both science and prose quality, I consider the best of Dawkins’s books. I loved the Henrietta Lacks book, and gave it a strongly positive review in the Barnes and Noble Review. Everyone should read it. I’ve recommended five popular evolution books on the “Five Books” site, but many of them have already been mentioned here. And don’t forget Dennett’s “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” for a philosophical take on evolution.

        1. Is it in “Climbing Mount Improbable” where Dawkins writes (and has delivered in lectures viewable online) his masterful, “We are all going to die . . . .”? Or possibly “Unweaving the Rainbow”?

          In any event, it’s on my way long “To Do” list to get to at least those two books.

      2. The Blind Watchmaker is my favorite Dawkins, too. It was the first of his I read; I so enjoyed the clarity and readability and of course the subject matter. Felt like I’d found another Sagan.

        You, PCC, are also in that category of course.

  27. Climbing Mount Improbable, because Dawkins explained how natural selection works (especially the gradual part) with more details and examples than in his other popularized evolution books.

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