"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something." - Thomas Huxley
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| Study |
Author David McCullough has described an exercise Louis Agassiz, born
in Switzerland in 1807 taught students. It came to be called, "the
incident of the fish." Agassiz presented students with a dead fish, as
he interviewed them. He told them to look at the fish, then, he would
leave them. Students were left, wondering what to look at or learn. We
learn much about this activity; from the experience of Samuel Scudder
(one of Agassiz many students). At first, he could see nothing but a
lifeless fish. But Agassiz kept encouraging, "Look, look, look," and
Scudder began to see even more, things that he previously ignored - the
experiment lasted three days. Scudder described the experience as a
turning point in his life, which opened up a new world. It was a legacy,
"of inestimable value, which we could not buy, with which we cannot
part." Agassiz was teaching the importance of study, examination,
digging deeper, not being content with the obvious.
