Education

Today, with next to no notice, I had to speak for a few minutes on the nature of the Education pillar of the school's strategic plan. My boss felt it would be better to speak to something of the school's philosophy at our first meeting with incoming freshmen rather than simply discuss housekeeping issues.

The strategic plan has five pillars: Education, Leadership, Experimentation, Community, and Diversity. These are supposed to be the principles that guide all decisions about how the school is put together. As a TD I can get behind most of these. Sometimes I have a little trouble with Experimentation. That particular item gets spun to "don't be afraid to fail." As an engineer and as a manager I tend to have a different definition and reaction to failure in my domain than an actor or a director might have to an artistic failure. But on the whole I think they are good ideas to work from. Our followthrough, that's another story.

Mladen has the best line. He had to cover Diversity. He explained that he believes that we spend too much time labeling with color, that the Indians and the Communists have both been called Reds. He explained that Nazis were called Browns, and that Cleveland has Browns, but that they are not Nazis. I wanted him to explain that at school our color is plaid, which would be inherently diverse, but he didn't. Instead he explained that we are all the same color inside, and that the differences between us are a strength in the realm of learning.

I got to extemporize about Education. My big points were to be sure to recognize the resources around you, to be aware of opportunities for inter-disciplinary experiences, and to take ownership of one's own education in order to maximize and create more opportunities for one's self. I was just getting to the part about how our program is not a service environment, but rather a collaboration between students and faculty and maybe to use a quote that Kevin had given me: "it is the responsibility of universities to but together talented people and then duck." when I paused just a hair to long and Liz said thank you. Which is too bad because I never got to talk about learning more than just skills, but to appreciate the artform, establish a level of professionalism, learn to learn, and to learn from and to teach all the people around you.

I think she cut me off because one of our students was nodding off and it provided a once in four year's opportunity to tell that person to leave and come back when they were ready to participate. Really, I'm not sure I could have stayed awake through my talk if I hadn't been the one talking. Maybe I'll get to do that last bit tomorrow for the grad students.