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Address at the Opening Convocation Daniel Webster College, 6 September 1996 David Gries Computer Science, Cornell University Listening to elders I have been asked to share my thoughts on education and teaching. Freshman, I hope you will listen and take something from this address, although, based on my own experience, I believe you may not! When I was your age, I rarely listened to my elders; why should you be different? It is the nature of youth to try to forge its own path, to strike out on its own, to want to do things differently, to be impatient with the older generations --perhaps because youth sees that the older generations don't have all the answers, haven't fully succeeded in making the world a secure, happy, healthy place, and haven't been shining examples to follow. Youth is often idealistic, and the world is not an ideal place. The world today Indeed, the world today is tougher than it was when I entered college 40 years ago, in 1956. Of course, there has been some progress. The cold war with Russia is over, the threat of nuclear war seems diminished, arms are being reduced, there is environmental awareness, and there are real attempts at peace in many parts of the world. But in other ways, the world is tougher. Drugs are now pervasive (when I went to Queens College in New York City, I hardly knew what marijuana was, and I certainly didn't know how to get it). Today, graduating seniors have trouble getting jobs; when I got out, jobs were plentiful. Welfare and health care are bigger and more expensive problems now. In the U.S., every hour, two people under twenty contract AIDS (in 1956. we hadn't heard of AIDS). The population of our jails has doubled in less than ten years. And the environment is in a mess. (Speaking of the environment, we have on our refrigerator a cartoon: a picture of a man kneeling at his bed, praying. He is saying, "And may we continue to be worthy of consuming a disproportionate share of this planet's resources." That, in some sense, sums up the American Dream.) So, you are growing up in a much tougher world, and perhaps some words of advice and encouragement might help you. What is education for? Let me tell you what Daniel Webster, the person after whom this fine college is named, said of education. If we work on marble, it will perish. If we work upon brass, time will efface it. If we erect temples, they will crumble to dust. But if we work upon men's immortal minds, if we imbue them with high principles, with the just fear of God and love of their fellow men, we engrave on those tablets something that no time can efface and that will brigthen and brighten to all eternity. For Webster, education was not about imparting knowledge, not about pouring facts into minds. Instead, it was about imbueing minds with high principles, with a just fear of God, and with love of their fellow men. I think that many of our problems have arisen because we have shied away from such lofty goals. Instead, we use colleges and universities to pour facts into people, to prepare them with a particular skill to make a living, to earn money. These are important, but more important are the high principles, the high values, the search for a meaning to their life, the fact that only through loving all men, no matter what their culture, can the world be at peace. We have forgotten that money comes and goes, while morality comes and grows. Many people have said, in one way or another, that the chief aim of education is character. For example, the Irish poet Spencer said "education has for its object the formation of character." Plutarch said that ``The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in the felicity of lighting on good education.'' It has also been said that education is not for living but for life. Yes, education will provide the skills for landing a job, but more important is the values that determine how you live your life, not how you earn your living. Abraham Lincoln expressed a ``desire to see the time when education, and by its means morality, sobriety, enterprise, and industry, shall become much more general than at present.'' Stephen R. Covey's book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" points out a rather momentous fact. Covey noticed that books on how to suceed have switched in the past 50 years from a character ethic, which had been the paradigm since 1776, to what Covey calls a personality ethic. The character ethic is based on values or qualities like integrity, humility, fidelity, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty, truth, peace, love, righteousness, nonviolence. The character ethic teaches that these are basic principles of effective living, and true success and enduring happiness are based only on living these principles. Benjamin Franklin, Covey says, was a model for the character ethic, and if you read about Franklin, I am sure that you will agree. The personality ethic is based more on outward personality, on public image, on quick fixes, on skills and techniques to impress people. It is based not on how you look to yourself but more on how you look to other people. There are, of course, some good things about the personality ethic, like having a positive attitude and getting training in communications skills, but the personality ethic can be negative as well. For example, the personality ethic may be based on deception in that it may tell you how to act so that people like you, whether you feel that way or not. The personality ethic would pressure a child into a particular social mold in an attempt to impress others; the character ethic would be more concerned with the child's values, such as honesty, integrity, and service to others. People full of the character ethic areconcerned with their own values and way of living; people full of the personality ethic are concerned with what others think of them and how they can get ahead. Reviving the character ethic Now, I believe that this character ethic is our basic nature. Values like love, truth, peace, good conduct, nonviolence, integrity, honesty are innate in all of us, but they have been covered up by envy, greed, the need to impress, a desire to succeed, and so on. Learning to let the character ethic dominate, letting these values assume their rightful place in our life, could have momentous effects on ourselves, our family, the community, the nation, and the world. For example, suppose that here at Daniel Webster all were able to live and teach in such a way that all students became imbued with these basic values, these high principles. Then Daniel Webster could produce: •Company executives who are just as much interested in the social influences of their companies as they are in making money. • Politicans who stand on their deep principles and moral values, rather than on what will get them elected or reelected. •Congressmen who are not swayed by lobbyists who try to influence laws for their own selfish interests instead of the interests of the country and the world. •Realtors, insurance men --salesman of all sorts-- who are honest and truthful with their clients. •Software engineers who realize how dangerous a bug in a program can be and therefore who constantly strive to learn ways to stop bugs from entering programs in the first place. •Teachers who are sincerely interested in their students, who want them to gain an education for life, not just for earning a living, and who are continually looking for better ways to educate. •Writers who are aware that their words are of great influence and write accordingly. •In summary, people who live solid values --like truth, love, peace, righteousness, nonviolence, honesty, integrity, compassion-- and who spend their time in the service of others. Would Daniel Webster College and all the other places of education turn out people of this kind, instead of those who are more personality-ethic oriented, our country and our world would be a better place. And if even a core of people would change thusly, a collective consciousness would be developed that would help change the rest of the world. Relearning the character ethic Ideally, solid values should be emphasized during childhood; one gets one's values from one's family and later from school and one's peers. However, it is never to late to begin self-inquiry, and Daniel Webster College is a wonderful place to do it. Daniel Webster is small and congenial --you will even get to converse with the President from time to time. Classes are small, teaching is the only concern, and I know from experience that Daniel Webster is always looking for inovative, forward-looking, better pedagogical methods. Daniel Webster wants to do the job right. If educational institutions begin to discuss ethics and morals and values, if educational institutions begin to ensure that all students understand the difference between a character ethic and a personality ethic and have time for such self inquiry, you can be sure that the Daniel Webster Colleges will be leading the way. Until that time, freshmen, take it upon yourself to think about your own values and what would make you most content. For example, consider points like the following. • Ponder your own existence --what is life for? Why are you on this planet? •Remember that the name you make for yourself is far more important than the money you make or the success you achieve. Scrooge was hated and miserable, in spite of his money, until he learned compassion, sharihng, companionship, and service to others; then he was loved. No one would want Hitler's name, in the spite of the tremendous power that he wielded. •See what you can do to help the world. Service to others (without reagrd for reward), even in small ways, is of immense satisfaction. Emerson realized this, saying, "Serve and thou shalt be served. If you love and severe men, you cannot, by any hiding or strategem, escape renumeration." •Remember that the past is past and cannot be changed. It is gone. Don't dwell in it. Don't spend your time either bemoaning or relishing what has happened. Instead, resolve to learn from the past and move on. The future, on the other hand, is yet to come. While we think we control it, it usually take its own course, no matter what we do. So prepare as best you can for the future, but don't live in the future, for the future. Instead, live in the current moment, the now. Enjoy, it, experience it, dwell in it. This moment is all we really have; it is God's gift to us; that is why it is called the present. •Investigate your own character and try to make it better. Do you lean more to the character ethic or the personality ethic? When something goes wrong, do you criticize others or look for the fault in yourself? •Reflect on messages of poems like Edgar A. Guest's poem Myself: I have to live with myself, and so I want to be fit for myself to know. I want to be able as days go by Always to look myself straight in the eye. I don't want to stand with the setting sun And hate myself for the things I've done. In summary Freshmen, welcome to college and to a new, exciting, journey: the rest of your life. The next four years should be a good time; live it fully, get as much out of it as possible; have fun. This part of life's journey is one of intense learning. But please remember that it is not only for learning facts and skills. Instead, learn about yourself. Do some self-inquiry. Ask yourself whether you live solid values or whether you are more inclined to the personality ethic, and work to change yourself accordingly. This self-inquiry will make the life after your education more rewarding for yourself and more useful for society. |
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