I hold
degrees in history, political science, and English literature. I have strong
interests in mythology and religion. As a hobby I have looked into astronomy,
geology, and meteorology (these last have a lot to do with book research, but I
still enjoy them). I have friends in the sciences and law, and I speak with
them and enjoy hearing what they have to say about their disciplines.
All of this
preamble is not to talk about my education, but rather a fundamental truth I’ve
always known, but is starting to gain ground in higher education. Disiplines
are connected to one another.
To learn
about one thing is not to learn about one thing. Everything is connected. You
cannot understand literature without considering history and the politics of
the time when it was written, or even the economics around it. You cannot
understand science unless you know how that science connects to other sciences,
history, and society. All of human understanding is a giant tapestry with
overlapping threads. One thread cannot be pulled free and studied in isolation.
The weave is so tight that other threads invariably come with it.
So there is
a growing idea that classes should be linked together, formally, to create
these learning communities. I’m not sure that it needs to be done in a formal,
one-off type of way. I believe it’s the responsibility of all instructors to
talk about how subjects crossover. When students begin to understand that the
study of philosophy will impact their English and science classes, or how
history impacts psychology and science, how mathematics was influenced by
philosophy and geography, we will create students who will know how to excel in
all areas instead of concentrating only on the short-term needs of their
classes.