the Sam Jackson College Experience

One of my classes this semester, The Intellectual in Politics (HUMS 331 / PLSC 328), has a final research project which revolves around the use of the Yale University Archives and the Manuscripts and Archives division. An institution hundreds of years old has a great deal of interesting documents pertaining to its own history, but Yale also has thousand upon thousands of other collections of papers from noted intellectuals over time. All told, Yale has more than 12 miles of papers entrusted to it by various persons.

Our final project for this class will be to create an online exhibit around five different documents, so I will definitely share it when I’m done.Everywhere you look, there are amazing things to find – you can request the personal notes and documents of people from important people hundreds of years since left to the history books, or zoom in to chronicle the personal diaries and thoughts of noted government figures and other intellectuals. It’s really just like a time machine, except with more paperwork to fill out.

At the moment, I am in Sterling Library reading through some of the records associated with the presidency of Kingman Brewster, my personal favorite Yale president. While there is too much to type altogether, I am going to share one piece that I really like that I just read. It makes me sad to think that in 1965, it was a *problem* that students were not motivated by money. How different were the problems facing educators in 1965? Read on to find out:

This is text of a speech of President Kingman Brewster, Jr. before the American Council on Education, Washington, D.C., October 8, 1965

“If the ends don’t justify the means, what does?”

Boredom is not a newcomer in the halls of academe. But there is a mounting impatience and if we admit it, a new and unpleasant aroma of scorn among some student groups –impatience with education, scorn for educators.

Of course faculties are, and always should be heavily populated by people who are dedicated to the proposition that the search for truth is an end in itself. I am not one of those who buy the notion that the only worthy end of thought is action. Thought and learning, like experience and beauty can be ends in themselves. Not the least part of our job is to awaken a capacity for this enjoyment in the oncoming generations so that theirs may be delight in living as well as doing.

But the tragedy of the highly motivated impatient young activist is that he runs the serious risk of disqualifying himself from true usefulness by being too impatient to arm himself with the intellectual equipment required for the solution of the problems of war and poverty and indignity. You and I have seen too many among our students of high promise squander their talent for a lifetime of constructive work at a high level for the cheaper and transient satisfaction of throwing himself on some immediate barricade in the name of “involvement.” Posturing in the name of a good cause is too often the substitute for thorough thought or the patient doggedness it takes to build something.

Because we assume our own faith in education perhaps we have not preached it well enough. We have left it to the economists and the politicians to translate teh value of education into earning power and let it go at that. A generation whose brightest minds are unsatisfied with the dollar as the measure of success cannot be expected to find relevance in such appeals.

One of the new responsibilities for our old generation of educators is to remind the most highly motivated among the oncoming generation that there is no shortcut to the intellectual capacity which is now required to be useful in this ever shrinking ever complicating world. The chance to make a constructive difference in the lives of others, not the full dinner pail, is the highest reward of a higher education. If impatient anti-intellectualism of the radical left is not to seduce many of our best brains away from true usefulness; we and our faculties have to resassert again and again that emotional oversimplification of the world’s problems is not the paper to their solution.

But let me return to my text. What of the ends? If they don’t justify the means, what does?

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Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Pamela George sent an e-mail out several months ago with some interesting advice for students who might be experiencing Sophomore Slump, a dangerous affliction quite different from its cousin, Senior Slump, a syndrome which many high school seniors are currently familiarizing themselves. Essentially just lifted from UCA’s website, the e-mail / list / thoughts are still very instructive. I know that myself and most other people in college (as sophomore or later) have experienced some of these worries at one point or another.

Transitions from First year to Sophomore year — The”Sophomore Slump”: What is it? What can I do?

What is the sophomore slump?

The sophomore year is likely to be a time when students may feel they cannot get the institutional attention and support they may have received as freshmen. Although Yale is here for students at all levels, for sophomores, college is no longer new–the excitement and thrill of a new experience has worn away, and they now face the reality that college will be three more years of hard work, courses, papers, and significant financial investment. These feelings of transition also come at a time when students may be struggling to determine career goals, dealing with personal development issues, and experiencing other diversions that may make academic and social integration even more difficult to attain. Not all students will face these challenges; many second year students progress easily into advanced levels of college, but for those who have a more difficult time, by being aware parents you can provide the support and guidance your student needs.

The sophomore slump is often defined as a “period of developmental confusion” and usually results from a student’s struggle with becoming a competent college student, gaining the autonomy and independence they seek, developing their new identities as adult and college students, and finding their purpose in life. Therefore, some sophomores may face a difficult period in their academic, social, and personal development.

Anyhow, I had been meaning to post this and initiate a discussion about it, especially as we sophomores (go class of 2011!) can now think back on our time in college more and think about what it means to go on soon to become JUNIORS (scary!!!) in not so long. Life is practically knocking at the door of our lovely ivory towers. Thoughts? See full post view for remainder of ’sophomore slump’ article, or check out its original form at UCA.

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