Lillian C. McDermott
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History
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later made to welcome colleagues in the Physics Department and everyone in the Physics
Education Group to our home.
I entered Hunter College High School in the ninth grade.
It was an all-girls school at that
time.
Admission was on the basis of a competitive examination in English and mat
hematics.
I
traveled 45 minutes each way on the Fifth Avenue bus (or by a combination of subway and cross-
town bus) from my home to 68
th
street and Lexington Avenue, which was where Hunter High was
then located.
There was little choice in the curriculum.
Three years of Latin were compulsory.
My earlier study of Greek made Latin particularly interesting for me.
The logical structure of both
languages inspired me to think critically about my use of English.
Hunter also required two years
of a second foreign language.
I chose French and recall that no English was spoken in class.
Physics was compulsory for everyone in the junior year.
I remember learning a lot of facts that I
thought were interesting (
e.g.,
how a refrigerator works).
However, the course consisted largely of
memorization and did not offer much practice in logical reasoning.
Instead I developed that skill
in my history and civics courses, in which there was an unannounced quiz each week that posed a
challenging question (
e.g.,
discuss the
underlying causes of the Civil War).
We were expected to
answer in correct English and support our response with logical arguments based on facts.
A
subject that was not even offered at Hunter was typing.
I think that there was a concern that if we
learned to touch-type we would become secretaries.
I have always regretted that omission because
it has been an ongoing handicap.
I never developed the willpower to teach myself.
During my senior year at Hunter High, I was admitted to several liberal arts colleges and
to Cornell University.
Vassar was my first choice.
A partial scholarship from the College and a
New York State Regents Scholarship made it possible for me to attend.
At that time, Vassar was
still an all-women’s college, one of the “seven sisters.” My high school education had been so
rigorous that I found my first year in college a lot less stressful than did many of my classmates.
I
especially liked my course in English literature with its emphasis on critical thinking and careful
writing.
P.S. 187 and Hunter High had given me a good start in developing those skills, which
Vassar strengthened.
Developing confidence in my ability in physics during my freshman year was quite
another matter.
I remember telling my instructor that I didn’t really understand the material.
She
very kindly told me to wait until after the first exam and then discuss the problem with her.
When
I received the highest grade in the entire class, I realized that “understanding” has a different
meaning for different people.
I especially liked physiology but I realized that it was not for me
when, during a laboratory session, the instructor took the frog out of my hands and pithed it for
me.
(I think she was afraid that I would faint.)
I chose to major in physics, partly because I was
Lillian C. McDermott
73
History
3/15/10
squeamish about hurting animals, but mostly because I thought that physics was harder than other
subjects and I wanted to understand it better.
The faculty encouraged me, perhaps because they
had no male students whose apparent self-confidence was more characteristic of the field.
One of my fondest memories of Vassar was my almost daily walk to the Music Building.
I had a music scholarship that funded my piano lessons.
The only requirement, besides daily
practice, was a year-long course in music theory.
I also took a year of music history and art
history, as well as philosophy.
I was elected to Phi Beta Kappa during my junior year.
When I
later met Arnold Arons and realized how broadly knowledgeable he was, I was impressed that he
had managed to do for himself what my college had done for me.
It was at Vassar that I first began to think about becoming a college professor.
What I had
in mind was teaching at a college that had an academically strong program, a compassionate
faculty who cared about students, and an atmosphere that promoted cross-disciplinary
conversations among colleagues – all in a garden-like environment.
I did not envision becoming a
professor at a large institution like the University of Washington (UW), which also has a beautiful
campus.
I think that my college experience and my idyllic perspective on the life of a professor
influenced my later choice of physics education as my field of research.
There was one important incident that occurred during my college years that had lasting
consequences, not only for my personal life but also for my professional future.
My father died
unexpectedly from a heart attack one week before the beginning of my sophomore year.
As soon
as I returned to Vassar, the Dean came by my room to assure me that I would have a full
scholarship until graduation.
This sad event in my life also determined which graduate school I
would attend.
I knew that my mother needed me at home.
Thus, Columbia was almost my only
possibility for graduate study.
The University awarded me a Higgins Fellowship for my first year
in graduate school (1952-1953).
Another recipient of the same fellowship that year was Mark
McDermott, who had chosen to come to Columbia because New York was very different from
Walla Walla, Washington, where he had attended high school and Whitman College.
Life during my first year at Columbia differed greatly from my undergraduate experience.
With a few exceptions, the faculty (which included several Nobel Laureates) seemed arrogant and
unconcerned about students.
One of the Nobelists greeted our entering class with the words,
“Look to the right and look to the left; half of you will be gone by the end of the year.”
On seeing
me in Mark’s laboratory, a future Nobelist sarcastically remarked that the Higgins Fellowships had
at least succeeded in promoting romance.
(The presence of a male student would not have elicited
that type of comment.)
Another incident that was not at all encouraging occurred during an oral
examination that I had to take because I had not done well enough on the thermodynamics part of
