Field Work
Field work is an essential part of any course of geologic training. Not only should it be taken at every opportunity during the regular school year, but no summer should be allowed to pass without geologic practice in the field. Opportunities for such work are offered in the summer field courses given by various institutions. In recent years it has usually been possible, also, for the student with elementary training to take part in summer geological survey work for state, national, or private organizations. In fact, after two or three years of geologic training, it is comparatively easy for the student to earn at such intervals during the year a fair fraction of his year's expenses.
The ideal arrangement, from the writer's viewpoint, would be about an equal division of time between indoor and outdoor study. The alternation from one to the other supplies a much needed corrective to clear thinking. It is impossible to bring all the subject materials into the classroom and laboratory; such study must inevitably be more or less deductive and generalized. If the student at frequent intervals is not able to acquire and renew a mental picture of field conditions, there is likely to be a faulty perspective even in regard to principles, and a considerable gap between the theoretical and applied phases of his knowledge. It may be possible in the classroom, for instance, to discuss faults in great detail with the aid of maps, diagrams, and pictures; and yet it is extremely difficult to get a real three-dimensional conception of the problems without actually standing on the ground.