My university degree is in Geography-Biology. That is a single major, not a double and not a major and a minor. It was offered at York University for a few years before they dropped it, and later, I assume, changed it to Environment Science, but I do not think they are the same thing.
My major started as Geography, but I did not do well in it, so I switched to History. History I liked, but there was a lot of writing involved and truthfully, as an undiagnosed AS person, I started running into a lot of difficulties and I was starting to fail. I wrote an exam and got 70% on it, the part that I finished which was 70% of the exam. I was writing as fast as I could write. 70% of 70% is 49%. I needed 50% more time to complete my written exams because I have dysgraphia.
Dysgraphia is like dyslexia, except instead of affecting reading it affects writing. My thoughts are racing along faster than I can get them down. I have to concentrate on letter formation otherwise the letters and the words are illegible. Even when I do that, my scrawl is difficult to read. I had 50% more time in high school to write my exams and the other kids knew it. One more thing that separated me from everyone else, so in university I was going to do it without the extra help. Obviously that was a mistake. First year though was easy, most of the students were playing catch up with me and the tests did not expect much of first year students, so I finished most exams. Not now.
So I took the extra help. Exams were he'll I can tell you. My last exam period was the worst. Three exams on one day, two hours each one, 50% more time meant 9 hours of exams with no breaks.
So after the dismal exam in history, I started asking if this was the right place to be, if this was the right major for me. I still loved Geography, but I had difficulties with the first course I took, I took another course with my history courses and I did fantastic, but again the work was mostly review for me. My high school was top ranked at the time, I took OACs and I have an iron trap memory were learning is concerned. I also realized that if I concentrated on one and only one subject, I was going to get bored and fail, so I routed around in the geography course options for specialization and found Geography-Biology. Two subjects that I took through OAC and enjoyed. So my third year I started that major. It was perfect for me and it was quirky; York had about 50,000 undergrads then, and I was in a course that had only 5 people taking it.
Geography-Biology is the study if the earth from the top of the clouds to the top of the mantle, but mostly the interaction of the air,water and soil with the living things. I took geomorphology, soil science, hydrology, arctic environments, hydrometerology, plant populations and I took animal physiology, plants, ecology, plant evolution, herpetology (the study of herpes), genetics, mycology and more. I took these courses and I came to realize that they were all connected and the geography people were teaching similar stuff as the biology people but I was the only person who realized it, because of the insular nature of departmental politics. If I could have done university again I would have done my own course selection and combined geography, biology and history in to one study. It is not that far fetched; it has been done before. A professor told me about a thesis that a collogue had done, the black death plague historical geographical and biological in nature. One thing that I realized is that everything in the world is connected and university professors separate them to study them in the field they are masters in, but by doing so they lose perspective; education needs to be holistic to succeed.
If I were going to teach one course of my choice I would teach the History of the Earth. It is my passion and my passions. I would start at the beginning, 14.7x10 to the 9 power and I would end with the distraction of humanity in the year 2100 there a bouts. That would cover many of my passions including Astronomy, Geomorphology, Evolution, Ecology, History and many others. Oh and I meant it about the end of humanity, I am just not sure about the year, but it is a forgone conclusion unless people get some perspective on their place in the universe. I will begin soon. Stay tuned.
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