| Alumni Perspective |
"Now Is the Time
to Teach _______?"
General Charles C. Krulak '60, Retired Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps
 |
| Krulak |
This is an extremely difficult question to answer. To be honest, I don't even like the question because it limits the scope of our "national problem" to an educational solution limited to the classroom.
The reality is far more complex and will require active participation, not just from the academic sector but, more importantly, from the home. We need to be teaching our future leaders to be men and women of character. Here I define character as possessing selflessness, great moral courage and integrity. We need to be able to demonstrate to these future leaders that their success in life will depend on their strength of character, and that although they will see some people without character achieve "victories," those victories will not be sweet, they will not stand the test of time and they will not inspire anyone!
So what should we be teaching? Values! There ought to be a mandatory course in all of our schools that teaches values, and it ought to encompass "homework" that involves the parents.
I spent the last 35 years of my life working with the youth of America. They are great young men and women and will respond very positively to the concepts of responsibility and accountability, but they need to have the "boundaries"-the rules-laid out for them. We, as a nation, have not done that for years. We need to get our compass pointing true north again.
We will not get through the difficult and chaotic years ahead without a touchstone, and that touchstone is a set of values that talks to the dignity of mankind, the importance of selflessness (see the example set by the firemen and police officers in New York City), the criticality of moral courage and the power of one's intergrity.
|
|
 |
| Geary |
Karen Geary, Science: I still teach physics in much the same way, but since
September 11, I have found myself less interested in the details, and much more interested
in the important aspects of life as I see them-timeless and boundless ideas such as morality
and family. I cannot help but carry that attitude over into my classroom. I find myself less
concerned about the material we are learning and more concerned about the students and their
experience, as well as helping them to see a process within the context of the material.
And I feel that it has made my classroom a more important, effective place to learn.
Ronald Kim, History: As a teacher in general, I want to help students feel
reassured without being naively so. Without minimizing what's happening, I don't want
them to feel helpless, but to rely on the power within themselves. To that end, I have
a certain appreciation for the value of what I'm teaching. I do feel that the historian's
view is especially relevant right now, if for no other reason than that I am helping
students to try to understand what's going on in the world. But I'm not one of those
history teachers who believes that by understanding what went on in the past, you will
know what to do in the future. What you can understand from history are the forces with
which you're dealing.
Having said that, I really appreciated being on a panel discussion this fall with
[religion instructor] Betsy Farnham and [English instructor] Christine Robinson because
their instincts in approaching the questions were different from mine. My approach is to
put the issues in a historical framework: Is this event similar to or different from what
has gone on before, especially in the context of U.S. foreign policy? But an English
teacher's focus on language was very instructive for me: What do we mean by "our" foreign
policy? What do we mean when we use the word "war"?
Has the changed world in which we find ourselves caused you to alter any of your courses?
 |
| Ramsey |
Tom Ramsey: In my Religion 310 course on Social Ethics, I've devoted one segment
to talking about the morality of war. It's not a topic I've done in the past, but I just
felt that given the circumstances, it was important to talk about it. I don't think I
would have done it, however, if it hadn't also meshed with the way I had approached
other topics in the course. We were at a point where I usually introduce Kantian ethics
through a discussion of capital punishment, but you can do the same thing by talking
about war. So I haven't really diverged from the underpinnings of my curriculum.
Rather, using those underpinnings, which are certain moral theories, I've just
changed the topic from capital punishment to war.
Rick Schubart: The sheer enormity of events just compelled doing something
different where possible. In fact, the history department met and talked about this. We
asked ourselves whether we had some broader obligation as a department to step forward,
which would include not only some shifts in class emphases, but also organizing forums for
the whole community. We quickly came to a strong consensus that we did, and so, working
closely with the religion department, that is what we've done.
For me, two courses are quite relevant: History 440 as we call it, which is American
Politics and Public Policy, and History 408, which is a course on contemporary issues in
war and peace that I teach in the winter term. The politics and public policy course
focuses on American politics and party structures and the structure of government-kind
of an introductory political science course. At the very end of the course we turn to some
discussion of American foreign policy, but the real thrust has always been domestic.
However, with the enormity of what is going on in the world, I switched the order of
the course so we could start with American foreign policy. Now we are coming back to
examine the impact on domestic policy of dealing with a foreign political crisis, the
adoption of new policies in the East and Southwest Asia, and the use of military force.
By doing that, we've created an opportunity to read and discuss broadly the nature of
policy-what kinds of options a president has when facing a crisis; who makes up his
national security team; the different kinds of advice he gets; how he handles conflicting
advice. And then we examine and analyze the outcomes.
 |
| Tillery |
Kristopher Tillery '02: I had to sign my draft card the day after.
Cerin Lindgrensavage: That would freak me out.
Lila Ontiveros '02: I signed up for ROTC this summer and I'm 18.
Kristopher Tillery: It scares me a little, to be honest about it. The thrill of it?
I don't know about that. I worry that we're repeating mistakes we've made before. I saw some
survey on CNN.com-something like 30 percent of those surveyed supported making all Arab-Americans
carry an ID card now. Things like that worry me, that we would make the same, obvious mistakes.
When we study World War II in history class, we say, "What were they thinking?" And now we're
in a similar position and we see how people made those decisions and we're making them again.
It makes me want to do something. I don't know what though. I just want to say, "Be careful."
 |
| Ontiveros |
Cerin Lindgrensavage: Exactly. I have felt very intensely that I have a
responsibility as an American citizen. I can't vote yet, so I'm sort of a second-class
citizen but in another year I'm going to be right there voting. I remember studying U.S.
history during the period when our school was founded and learning that John Phillips felt
that we should educate people in order to have a more effective democracy. I feel that
acutely, because, like Kris said, I am so worried about the hysterical reaction-looking
at our pretty checkered history of not such good things that we've supported. I feel an
intense responsibility to be a responsible member of the country in my small way.
Lila Ontiveros: Mr. Schubart has encouraged us to "spread our knowledge."
Because other students know I'm focusing on learning as much as I can about all this,
people will come up to me and ask, "Hey, what's going on in the news?"
Cerin Lindgrensavage: I'm definitely having more intellectual conversations with my
friends. I sat down at the dinner table the other day and we had this intense argument over the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict, one that's gone on for about three days now. We've been emailing
each other articles and stuff. That never happened before. We had discussions but they were
always left behind at the dinner table.
 |
| Azzi |
Iman Azzi: It's been good to be here because there's a diverse reaction. Everybody
feels differently, depending on where they're from or where they live. Here you can understand
how everyone else is coping. If I was at home, I would only be able to understand how I am feeling.
As seniors, have the events of September 11 and the war on terrorism altered your future plans?
Olga Gorodetsky: I definitely think that it's had an impact on people's college plans.
Mine were to go into international relations anyway, but my commitment has changed. Now I feel
like it's my duty to learn about foreign relations as a citizen rather than just because it is
my professional interest.
Lila Ontiveros: I was going to do ROTC originally. I had planned on serving my three
years and then returning to civilian life, but now I'm planning to change majors and stay in the
military longer. In my politics and public policy class, we've talked a lot about intelligence-
how there was so much information, but no one to analyze all of it. So I'm thinking about that,
how I can help prevent something from happening again.
Iman Azzi: I was thinking about schools of foreign service to begin with. Now it sounds
like an even better idea. But my parents and I have been having the discussion about big city
colleges. Washington, D.C. and New York are my favorites, but they both look at me and say,
"Well, how about Wisconsin?"
 |
| Thiong'o |
Njuguna Thiong'o '02: To be honest, it didn't really change anything in my life.
My mom was on her way to the American Embassy in Kenya when that bomb went off in 1998. She
got caught up in traffic, but for three days we couldn't reach her and thought she was caught
under the rubble, so I know how it feels to have someone that close involved in something like
this.
Our government didn't pay that much attention when it happened at U.S. embassies in Africa.
Now that it's finally happening here, they're doing something. But it hasn't really changed my
life, because my parents have always made sure that we knew that America isn't perfect.
Olga Gorodetsky: For me, it is the opposite. I'm an immigrant. We are refugees from
the USSR, and I have always been instilled with the image of the American Dream. My parents
have had a view of America as perfect. I have more than just a one-dimensional view, but I
come from the background that America is perfect: America is the great security, the great
savior, the haven for all the masses. That's how we arrived in New York. That's what Manhattan
represented to us. That's what the Statue of Liberty represented to us. That's what the World
Trade Center represented to us. And the fact that it no longer stands represents something to
us as well. That was the most striking thing—to see the towers topple.
—Andrea Jarrell
|
|
