\poo O00o

/

NAZARETH COLLEGE OF ROCHESTER COKHEN CEKE NT EXERCISES

Remarks by Ernest It. Bcye?

President

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Rochester, New York May 10, 15S7

\qoo o ^ n & ^ H

-X-

INTHODUCTION

Thank you very much, President Beston, for those generous remarks. I wish to congratulate the graduates here today* I congratulate you for choosing Nazareth College of Rochester, and for completing your academic program with success, Nazareth College is a truly superb institution—one that throughout its history has committed itself to coherence in the curriculum, to the centrality of teaching, to the imperative of service, and to the vision of a community of learning,

In April, 1972, I was sitting in my office in Albany, New-York. It was a dreary Monday morning and to avoid the pressures of the day, I turned instinctively towards the stack of third class mail that I kept on the corner of my desk to create the illusion of being very, very busy—it's an old administrative trick. On top was a student newspaper from Stanford University and I was struck by the headline which announced that the faculty at Stanford had reintroduced a required course in western civilization.

The students were mightily offended by the faculty's brash act. In a front page editorial they declared: "A required course at Stanford is an illiberal act." The editors concluded with this blockbuster question? *Eow dare they impose uniform standards on nonuniform people?*

Frankly I was at first amused and then somewhat troubled by that statement. I was troubled that these students, after fourteen or fifteen years of education, had not discovered the simple truth that while we are autonomous human beings with our

-ii-

|0UO 000O

own aptitudes and interests we are, at the same time, deeply dependent on each other.

This brings me then to the central theme of my remarks today. I believe that all worthy goals we pursue in education are best expressed in the simple word connections,

We have in education two clear and essential goals. The first goal of education is to prepare students to live independent, self sufficient lives so they can be economically ana socially empowered. But education is also to help students go beyond their private interests and put their own lives in historical, social, ethical, and spiritual perspective. To put it simply, during school and college we should discover ourselves and we should discover our connections. Let me give you a few examples to illustrate the point.

\0 0O Oooo 1 0 S 4

First, we are all connected through the use of symbols. Language is our most, essential human function, it distinguishes us from all other forms of life—the porpoise and the bumblebee notwithstanding. Language is the means by which we exquisitely convey our feelings and ideas and define our humanity to others. Indeed, it is only when we speak and communicate that we give shape to who we are and what we hope to be.

Isn't it amazing that children who are one, two, and three years of age develop language and yet they have never been formally taught? Now that I am a grandpa and able to observe this process unencumbered by dirty diapers and burpings late at night, I am absolutely stunned by the magic and the miracle that allows children to be linguistically empowered. Children become powerfully efficient in the elegance and even the weaponry of words. When I was a boy they used to say, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me," What nonsense! I would usually say that with tears running down my cheeks, thinking all the time, for goodness sake be guiet, hit me with a rock but don't send those verbal darts that penetrate so deeply and last so long.

Hy grandfather was a minister and as a boy I heard him preach several times a week. I often heard him preach from the Psalms where it reads that man is a little lower than the angels. In my boyish mind, I saw a spatial hierarchy with God

-ii-

oooo 1054

and the angels and then man and woman below. But now that I am older and grayer and perhaps a little bit wiser, I am convinced that it wasnft that man and woman are little lower than angels but rather that we're higher than the rest. What places us in such elevated position is our capacity to capture feelings and ideas through the miracle of language.

Lewis Thomas, the brilliant essayist, recently observed tha "childhood is for language." And I firmly believe that, in cur dangerous and interdependent world with its bellicose communications, it is urgently important that we learn not just the parts of speech—that= s not language—but that we use symbol as a sacred trust. We should learn not just correct grammar—that' s not language—but that good communication means integrity as well.

Several centuries ago the Quakers would risk imprisonment and even death because in court they wouldn't swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. The problem was not that they were against swearing, although they were. The problem was their unwillingness to swea that they would tell the truth only in a court of law, suggestin that outside the courtroom truth might be an option.

Well, it's perhaps too fine a point especially if your neck is on the block. But there is a larger point here: I am suggesting that truth is the obligation we assume when we are empowered with the use of symbols. Xf you have learned language the connectedness of language, you have, in the fullest sense, learned integrity as well.

-ii-

QOo O0» 1£>SM

I ask you then, have you discovered the connectedness of things? That we are interrelated essentially through the use of symbols, not in mechanistic form, but in the quality of our relationship with each other and the integrity of the messages which we send?

lOOO Oooo "lOtai

-fi-

ll,

I have a second suggestion to propose. We discover our connections, not only through the use of symbols, but through the study of history which introduces us to our own heritage, and to cultures other than our own. As far as we know, we're the only species with the capacity to recall the past and anticipate the future. And in this age of planned obsolescence, that seems to make irrelevant everything but the moment, itrs exceedingly important that we leam to put the human story in perspective.

About three years ago, forty percent of the community college students surveyed in California could not locate either Iran or El Salvador on a map. During our study of the American high school, we discovered that only two states in this country require students to complete a course in non-western studies. And two years ago in a survey of five thousand undergraduates, over thirty percent of the students said they had nothing in common with people in underdeveloped countries. Nothing in common with other human beings who are less privileged than we are?

The University of Notre Dame Director of Campus Ministry, William Toohey, wrote once that the trouble with many campuses is that they indulge in the nesting instinct, building protective little communities inside their great and learned walls.

In the Carnegie report on College we suggest that the campus must be a staging ground, not a monastic retreat from the

-ii-

\Q0O QOOa

realities of life. And I believe it's urgently important, as we enter the twenty-first century, that we put our generation in perspective, explore our roots, and reflect on what the future may hold.

Lewis Thomas, chancellor of the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said it best when he observed that if this century does not slip forever through our fingers, it will be because learning will have directed us away from our splintered dumbness and will have helped us focus on our common goals, both nationally and globally as well.

Connections through our use of symbols, connections through our understanding of the heritage that is ours, and in our relation to other cultures, too.

-ii-

^QOO 0&&O "10SH

III.

This leads to one further observation: I believe that as we approach the year 2000, all of us, through a study of science, should learn about our connections to the natural world and begin to understand the ecology of the planet earth. The simple truth is that all forms of life are inextricably connected and yet we remain woefully ignorant about the interlocking patterns in which we are all imbedded as working parts.

When X was Commissioner of Education, Joan Sanz Cooney, the brilliant creator of Sesame Street, cane to me one day and said she wanted to start a new program in science for junior high school students. That program subsequently was launched and it's called "3-2-1 Contact." you may have seen it.

Xn doing research for that program, Joan Cooney's staff surveyed junior high school students and they asked such questions as, "Where does water come from?" And a sizeable percentage of the students said, "the faucet," And they asked, "Where does light come from?" And the students said, "the switch." And "where does garbage go?" "Down the chute."

There's a larger point to be made here and it has to do with connections. Do we understand the interrelationship of the forces in the natural world that we discover through the elegance of science? And does this knowledge of force and power and resources go only as far as the refrigerator door and the light switch on the wall?

-ii-

Education is the process of discovering connections through the miracle of language, through our understanding of our heritage and, in the end, through our understanding of the ecology of the planet, earth.

-LQ-

IV,

Eere Ird like "to pause and say a word about, teachers, After all, we can have hooks and courses and lesson plans that look good on paper , hut in the end it is the magic of the teacher in the classroom who blends the ideas I have just described. And yet in this country we do not adequately honor teachers—the ones who bring it all together.

Several years ago, I couldn't sleep. So instead of counting sheep, I counted ail the teachers I had had. There were a few nightmares in the bunch, but on balance 1 was rather pleased and then I decided to recall the great teachers who had consequentially shaped my life. I remembered Miss Rice, my first grade teacher, who on the first day of school, said: "Good morning class, today we leam to read," We spent all day learning four simple words—brilliantly chosen—T go to school.* We traced them, we sang them. Miss Rice even wrote out a little prayer; "Thank you God, I go to school,* Incidentally, on that delicate subject, I beard recently that the one prayer that is acceptable to all faiths is, "Dear God, donrt let her call on me today.* That night I ran home, pulled a crumbled piece of paper from my pocket, and announced proudly to my mother: "Today I learned to read."

Well to be honest with you, I learned to memorise, but Miss Rice had taught me something much more fundamental: she taught me that language is the centerpiece of learning, And I find quite

-ii-

it quits miraculous that fifty years later when. I wrote a book, on high school I focussed on the centrality of language? and when I wrote a book on college I focussed on the central ity of language. I say that to let the record show that it was Kiss Rice, first grade teacher, Grandview Avenue Elementary School, Dayton, Ohio, 1933, who was imposing her convictions on those books. Great teachers live forever.

I remember Mr. Whittlinger, a high school history teacher, who one day in school said, "Ernest, will you stop by after school today?" Well, as you can imagine, my heart skipped a beat. I had sweaty palms. Teachers don't ask you to stop by unless something awesome is in the wind. Well, en this day, although the words were fleeting, they endured. In just fifteen seconds Mr. Whittlinger said, "Ernest, you are doing pretty well in history; keep this up and you just might be a student." Now that might sound to you like a put-down but it was the highest academic accolade X had received and suddenly my brain was shaken—I just sight be a student. A suggestion from a teacher whom I admired, a fleeting affirmation that redefined who I was and what I might become.

In the Carnegie report on college we strongly urge that greater priority be given to teaching. And we conclude that if this nation would give as much status to first grade teachers as we give to full professors, that one act alone could save the nation's schools.

At this commencement, we celebrate the achievements of the students, but can we pause and recall that, in the end, we are

-ii-

00O o&to "1D5H

celebrating tire contributions of unheralded teachers. First grade teachers, sixth grade teachers, college professors—those who have made passible this celebration. And could I suggest that before you leave campus you pause and say "thank you" to a teacher,

-13-

Iftip 10SH

V,

This leads to ona final observation. For education to be most authentic, students must make a connection between what they learn and how they live. During college we prepare ourselves for productive work but we must also learn to put our work in historical, social, ethical and spiritual perspective, And I worry very much about a generation where we are geared towards credentials but we do not bring ethical ballast to our judgments every day. Xtfs what one might call the 3c as icy syndrome,

7a eh el Lindsay wrote on one occasion that "It' s the world' s one crime its babes grow dull; not that they sow. but that they seldom reap? not that they serve, but have no God to serve? not that they die, but that they die like sheep.*

The tragedy of life is not death, the tragedy is to die with commitments undefined, with convictions undeclared and with service unfulfilled. And, in the Carnegie report, we propose that all students become engaged in voluntary service to build a connection between the classroom and the world outside,

Nearly fifty years ago, Mark Van Daren wrote that the student who can begin early in life to see things as connected has begun the life of learning. This means discovering connections through the elegance of language, through historical perspective, through the ecology of the planet and, ultimately, discovering the connection between what we leam and how we live.

-14-

Again, I congratulate those who are graduating today, and pray God's blessing on your work in the days ahead. And one final suggestion—as you move into life, it would be very nice you would call you mother at least once a week.