Philosophy
We had "Get Acquainted Day" last weekend, a day where we meet with accepted students -- some coming to Gettysburg, others undecided -- and we give our pitch explaining what we're all about. It's pretty much the same every year and you're tempted, especially at this time of the semester, to phone it in. But we always make sure to have some of our majors there to provide students' perspectives on the college and department and inevitably you realize that some of them are here because of earlier Get Acquainted Days, that what seems to you banal, yet another thing, can actually be life changing.
We like to point to rituals as the pivotal events -- weddings, graduations, getting the driver's license, turning 21, 30, 65 -- but really, the places and times that change our futures are buried among the mundane and would never be spotted, but for their consequences.
The most important thing I've ever done in my life was playing in my grandparents' backyard when I was 8. I found a pole and a small empty box, put the box on the pole and pretended it was a lacrosse stick. On seeing what I was doing, my mother suggested I try out lacrosse. I did and it changed where I went to college, what I studied, the people I met. I likely would not be a philosophy professor, certainly would not be married to my wife, my children would not be, were it not for that Sunday at my grandparents that was, in all other respects, like countless other Sundays.
As parents, we try to foster those moments for our own kids, trying to control and direct their effects. But it never works. It like throwing a party -- the great ones are never planned, they just happen.
It tempting to prescribe that we ought to live life knowing that anything we do could have this effect, to become hyper-aware of the results of our actions and to make sure we always act in a way that could have the best possible effects. But one could never live that way and, besides, sometimes the best consequences arise from the worst circumstances.
What were the mundane events that changed your life?
- Ritual And Meaning
Yesterday was opening convocation here at Gettysburg. A ceremony that is designed to mark the opening of the academic year and to bring the incoming class of first year students (we do NOT call them freshmen, by "we" I mean administrators) into the college...
- Avocations
Today is opening convocation. The school year is starting. I meet my freshman advisees today -- and what a bunch they are. Looking over their SAT scores and transcripts, they are incredible. Overachievers doesn't begin to reach it and to top it off,...
- Campus Mental Health And False Urgency
NPR had a series last week about mental health on college campuses and we've been getting a similar push here. Counseling services at colleges and universities across the country are getting clobbered. Several explanations have been proposed. One,...
- "this Isn't An Argument." "yes It Is."
This is the 1000th post on Philosophers' Playground. That's a lot of conversations. So, to celebrate, let's discuss the functionality of discussion. We had our annual "Get Acquainted Day" at the college last weekend where incoming and undecided...
- The Teacher-former Student Relationship
Having lunch today with some former students who were back for Homecoming Weekend. Good, smart, funny alums who always seem to need recommendations for amazing things they are going on to do. The student-teacher relationship is itself a complex one. How...
Philosophy
Butterfly Effect
We had "Get Acquainted Day" last weekend, a day where we meet with accepted students -- some coming to Gettysburg, others undecided -- and we give our pitch explaining what we're all about. It's pretty much the same every year and you're tempted, especially at this time of the semester, to phone it in. But we always make sure to have some of our majors there to provide students' perspectives on the college and department and inevitably you realize that some of them are here because of earlier Get Acquainted Days, that what seems to you banal, yet another thing, can actually be life changing.
We like to point to rituals as the pivotal events -- weddings, graduations, getting the driver's license, turning 21, 30, 65 -- but really, the places and times that change our futures are buried among the mundane and would never be spotted, but for their consequences.
The most important thing I've ever done in my life was playing in my grandparents' backyard when I was 8. I found a pole and a small empty box, put the box on the pole and pretended it was a lacrosse stick. On seeing what I was doing, my mother suggested I try out lacrosse. I did and it changed where I went to college, what I studied, the people I met. I likely would not be a philosophy professor, certainly would not be married to my wife, my children would not be, were it not for that Sunday at my grandparents that was, in all other respects, like countless other Sundays.
As parents, we try to foster those moments for our own kids, trying to control and direct their effects. But it never works. It like throwing a party -- the great ones are never planned, they just happen.
It tempting to prescribe that we ought to live life knowing that anything we do could have this effect, to become hyper-aware of the results of our actions and to make sure we always act in a way that could have the best possible effects. But one could never live that way and, besides, sometimes the best consequences arise from the worst circumstances.
What were the mundane events that changed your life?
- Ritual And Meaning
Yesterday was opening convocation here at Gettysburg. A ceremony that is designed to mark the opening of the academic year and to bring the incoming class of first year students (we do NOT call them freshmen, by "we" I mean administrators) into the college...
- Avocations
Today is opening convocation. The school year is starting. I meet my freshman advisees today -- and what a bunch they are. Looking over their SAT scores and transcripts, they are incredible. Overachievers doesn't begin to reach it and to top it off,...
- Campus Mental Health And False Urgency
NPR had a series last week about mental health on college campuses and we've been getting a similar push here. Counseling services at colleges and universities across the country are getting clobbered. Several explanations have been proposed. One,...
- "this Isn't An Argument." "yes It Is."
This is the 1000th post on Philosophers' Playground. That's a lot of conversations. So, to celebrate, let's discuss the functionality of discussion. We had our annual "Get Acquainted Day" at the college last weekend where incoming and undecided...
- The Teacher-former Student Relationship
Having lunch today with some former students who were back for Homecoming Weekend. Good, smart, funny alums who always seem to need recommendations for amazing things they are going on to do. The student-teacher relationship is itself a complex one. How...