Last July, Patrick and I were in Anaheim for a dance competition and I had a lot of down time to read and poke around on the computer. On a whim, I decided to sign up for a biology class at Seattle Central. I’d had science envy for a while and thought it would be fun to expand my learning horizons. I hadn’t worked for money since the last century and despite having a B.A. and two master’s degrees, it was rough going trying to get back into the working world after staying home with the kids. I was pretty half-assed in my job search and easily discouraged. Oliver said, go ahead and apply for jobs on-line, but nobody gets jobs that way anymore. He was right of course, but gamely helped me update my resume and edit cover letters. I envied the moms who had kept working as well as the ones who had chosen not to and were happy with their decision.
I had to take a math test to place into the class and studied with Kahn Academy for a couple of weeks. It was fun, and all the Sharps jumped in to tutor me with varying degrees of success. I did fine on the test and started Biology 160 at the end of September.
I loved the class. The other students were focused and determined, the teacher rigorous, and the material fascinating. The teacher was obviously an ex-ballet dancer, rail-thin with a Pacific Northwest Ballet coffee mug and very little sense of humor, but a deep and abiding love of her chosen field. It was a grind – lectures MWF and labs TTH, no day off, no time to coast. Many of the students were in a nursing program and had other demanding classes like anatomy and chemistry. They would come to class looking grim and frazzled with index cards of body parts, nerves, and drawings of what must have been digestive pathways. I wouldn’t say it was hard, but it was a lot of material that required time and effort to stay on top of. I didn’t start out as the student most advanced in years but, by the time the final rolled around, I ended up being the oldest one in the class. I did well, and signed up for an intro chemistry class and an intermediate math class for the winter quarter. I was bored over the dark and dreary Seattle winter break, missing the structure of class and the need for deliverables. Forcing functions, for me anyway, are good. Without them, I read a lot of interesting stuff because it’s entertaining and painless and retain very little.
Successive Approximation 