Wednesday, Jan. 6, 1965 University Daily Kansan
Page 5
Largest Lecture Class Taught by 'Conductor'
It was the last meeting before vacation of the largest single lecture class at KU. Dr. William Bass, recently named Hillteacher in the first issue of the Jayhawker yearbook, began his introductory anthropology course by taking requests for Christmas carols. He then directed one, with mighty motions but a rather off-tune voice.
HE THEN BEGAN the lecture in earnest, using a projection apparatus, known affectionately by the students as the "Big Eye," which allows him to write dates, spell words, and project charts. Occasionally his hand would wander across the screen's range as he emphasized a point. Students would speak out if they didn't understand something, and Dr. Bass would pause and say "Let me try to explain it another way for you."
bitternly. "You got just what you thought you did on this test," was Dr. Bass only statement.
Next he took a voice vote of the over 450 students present as to whether they wanted their last tests back as an early Christmas or a late New Year's present. The vote was for the present, and several graduate assistants passed the numbered papers down the rows and in the balcony.
After closing with another carol, students clustered around him. One girl wanted to know if there were opportunities for girls to go on summer diggings.
"Can you cook?" Dr. Bass asked
THE GIRL ASSURED him she was an excellent cook, so he sent her on the double to see the head of the expedition who needed a cook. Another older, married woman said she was having difficulty studying after being out of school several years. He told her they would go over her last test. A third student said the class was confused over the different time periods, B.C. and B.P. (before present), and thought Dr. Bass would want to know so he could correct this confusion. Dr. Bass thanked the student and said he would convert them to the same term.
"THERE IS A certain mystery about where we came from, and now that space is on the verge of being conquered, human origin is one of the last unknowns.
Later in his office Dr. Bass said that knowing he wanted to teach, he went through his 11 years of schooling studying the teachers who taught him. He tried to adapt the better techniques he evidenced into his own philosophy—that of teaching not only the course, but the students as well.
His basic assumption is that anyone can make something difficult, but a teacher should work to make the complicated simple and interesting. He feels he is favored by his field of anthropology.
"All people were and are adventuresome to some degree. Through anthropology we can explore the past
HOCH AUDITORIUM
Sunday, January 17
3:30 p.m.
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and learn for the present," Dr. Bass said.
Dr. Bass tries to give enough knowledge in the introductory course that students will be excited by the discoveries which have and are being made through archaeological diggings. He also gives practical information through his knowledge of bones—such as what to do if lockjaw occurs and not to swing a small child by his arms.
DR. BASS FIRMLY believes that whatever is done should be done well or not at all. He strives for exactness in a field which cannot always be exact. Yet he prefers to teach the huge introductory course rather than a small honors section. "The health of our upper division hinges on interest begun in the introductory courses. That makes it more of a challenge," he explained. Presently working on his own 700 page article, Dr. Bass has published much research with his upper level students.
AT
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