Blog Archive » 2006 » January

Dr. Martin Luther King would have been 77 years old today. Around the Washington region today and tomorrow, many events will observe and reflect on his legacy. Click here to see the list from the Washington Post.

Washington Post Columnist Colbert I. King asked a provocative question yesterday: What Would Dr. King Think? about the state of race relations in the United States today. What is the shape of The Dream?

I'd like to know what members of the Trinity family think about this question. What is your dream today, in the context of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech? How are we doing as a nation, as a community, in achieving the goal of true racial harmony and full equal opportunity in our society?

Let me know your thoughts by clicking on the comments link in the upper right-hand box next to this column, or send me an email at president@trinitydc.edu

I will talk about your comments in one of my next blogs.

Learn more about Martin Luther King, Jr.

What with the far-reaching scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the indictment of Congressional Leader Tom DeLay, and the ongoing questions surrounding the legal and ethical boundaries of presidentially-mandated electronic surveillance of citizens(see Walter Pincus Corralling Domestic Intelligence in the January 13, 2006 Washington Post), these are difficult days to teach students about the ethics of public service. Equally challenging is the task of inspiring young people to consider seriously devoting some portion of their careers to government service, as elected officials or career staff, or as members of the military and intelligence agencies. Yet, this "teachable moment" also offers numerous case studies to help the next generation of citizen leaders formulate strong, clear philosophies about the ethical principles of public leadership. Examples abound of what not to do in positions of power and influence.

Today's college students are certainly not the first generation to witness the problems of morally ambiguous characters and downright scurrilous behaviors among individuals in and surrounding public offices. As a Trinity senior during the days of Watergate, the name of the scandal that brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon, I remember being invited to participate in a forum conducted in 1973 by a group known as the Center for the Study of the Presidency. Nixon was still the president, but his problems were growing. This was a time shortly after the scandal-provoked resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, and the appointment of Gerald Ford to replace Agnew as vice president of the United States.

Vice President Ford was on the agenda to speak to us at the Center's conference, which took place at the then-new Sheraton conference center in Reston, Virginia. We students (mostly student government leaders) anticipated the dinner with great excitement — to think that we would actually meet the vice president of the United States! But our excitement was also tempered by the climate of the times — the Vietnam war was winding down, just as Watergate was heating up, and college students were notorious for protesting anything having to do with "the establishment" including (especially) the Nixon Administration. I knew that if I had the opportunity, I was going to ask Vice President Ford whether any of us should ever consider working for the government, given the scandals of the day. Such was the brashness of youth!

At the dinner, Vice President Ford spoke about the value of public service, and urged us to consider joining public agencies. He then took questions from the floor. I seized the opportunity! Gathering my courage, I raised my hand, and was stunned when he actually called on me. Trying not to sound too nervous, I stood up and said (paraphrasing here, it's been a while!), Mr. Vice President, how can you ask young people to consider public service when there is so much scandal in your administration? What can you say to us to convince us not to be cynical about working for the government?

There was a gasp from the direction of the Center Director Gordon Hoxie, but Mr. Ford smiled, and said (again paraphrasing), Look, individuals may have behaved badly, but you cannot write-off the entire field of government service because of bad behavior. Maybe what we need is a new generation of smart, ethical young talent to come work in government and help us to fix what's wrong.

Afterward, the Mr. Hoxie chided me for confronting Mr. Ford. But, in the headiness of the moment, I declared that I thought the vice president needed to know that the conduct of the Administration was chilling the passion of young people like me for the careers in government we once had planned. (Ironically, I ran into Mr. Hoxie many years later, after I became Trinity's president, and reminded him of this exchange. He laughed, and said that, obviously, I turned out mostly ok anyway.)

I thought of this episode when I received a letter from a Trinity alumna last week wondering whether Trinity's new program in Intelligence Studies, funded through a grant from the Intelligence Community, is compromising Trinity's bedrock commitment to search for truth. I've received several similar letters since we announced the creation of Trinity's Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence. Coincidentally, earlier in the week I had been speaking with some of my contacts in the Intelligence Community about the skepticism I sometimes encounter regarding the whole idea of introducing Trinity students to Intelligence careers. In a room full of distinguished generals and admirals with long experience in military intelligence, that brash Trinity senior spoke up again: how can I encourage my students to work in a field that has a public image of skirting the edges of law and ethics? What can the intelligence community do to repair this perception and the reality that may support it?

The ensuing discussion illuminated what I have already come to know about intelligence professionals: they are just as troubled as the general public about some events and activities, and they are as eager as we are to find ways to ensure that the work of Intelligence is used for ethical purposes for the sake of the nation. One way to achieve that goal is to be sure that Intelligence professionals are well educated and soundly rooted in firm principles of moral reasoning and ethical conduct — professionals such as the graduates we hope will march forth each year from Trinity.

Trinity has long encouraged our students to pursue careers in the legislature, executive branch, at the bar and in the judiciary. We celebrate our graduates who work as staff and elected officials in Congress, in the White House, in many government agencies and advocacy organizations, on local and federal benches. Clearly, a number of those public institutions have had their own share of ethical scandals — but no one has suggested that we should disavow the opportunities for careers in those places.

Trinity students today have greeted the opportunities to study Intelligence enthusiastically, and with the customary keen wit, deep integrity and belief in their power to change things that have always characterized our graduates. I have confidence in today's students as they learn about their responsibilities as tomorrow's leaders. Now and in the future, more than ever, the nation must have the good brains, large hearts and strong backbones of Trinity graduates in all fields of public service.

For more on education go to Education

Over the holidays, an article in the Washington Post cited a report from the National Center for Education Statistics concerning the reading skills of college graduates (Literacy of College Graduates is on Decline by Lois Romano, December 25, 2005, A12).

From time to time, various commentators enage in overwrought hand-wringing about the state of knowledge among today's students. Many of the so-called "studies" that inform those opinions are little more than the kind of amusing-but-stupid interviews that Jay Leno pops on the willfully clueless denizens of Sunset Boulevard (Who is Christopher Columbus? Um, uh, isn't he on "Desperate Housewives?" etc.)

But the NCES report is different, first, because it comes from a respectable group of researchers, and, second, because it illuminates an issue that most educators are confronting quite seriously in various ways today. Reading ability is fundamental, absolutely essential to almost all other forms of academic success, from writing to speaking to analysis, even to quantitative abilities. Reading is the bedrock of an advanced democracy. And reading is in critical condition among many citizens today.

The report assessed the reading comprehension abilities of 19,000 adults on everyday reading tasks, like reading labels and analyzing routine data. Fewer than half of the college and graduate students were proficient in these tasks — indeed, the 31% "proficient" score for college students was ten points lower than the 1992 score.

Romano's article goes on to quote "experts and educators" who describe themselves as "stunned" by the results which one librarian deemed "appalling — really astounding." Romano goes on, "Experts could not definitively explain the drop" in the scores of college graduates from 40% to 31% on reading proficiency.

At that point, I said to myself, "Oh, come on!" That "Shocked! Shocked!" tone seems like we doth protest too much. Of course we know why reading proficiency is a problem today. Through more than five decades, the video/audio mode of communication and learning has overtaken text as the primary method for knowledge acquisition. Technology has come at us so fast that we are still arguing about text versus video in an age when librarians, themselves, are leading the way through the radical paradigm shift in how human beings acquire information. When we envision new libraries now we talk more about bandwith than bookshelves.

Now, I'm no curmudgeon, being an insatiable devotee of just about every new technology within months of release. I believe deeply in the need for technology-infused education. But I also know that technology has a more troublesome side in the way that the essential skill and habit of reading (and the way in which reading develops the brain's power of imagination and familiarity with language vocabulary, form and style that is essential for good writing) has been displaced by faster, dazzling, more entertaining visual delights. We are in a free-fall age when it comes to reading and learning; we have not yet found the balance between the dazzling power of technology and the elegant, essential nature of words in text as the ultimate manifestation of human intellect.

Like all boomers, I was educated in the early days of school A/V — I will date myself dreadfully when I admit to remembering hand-turned filmstrips in grade school (but I was a few years past the "magic lantern" years of earlier classroom projection). Today, of course, a filmstrip, a movie on a big reel, even a VCR and tape seem as antiquated in classrooms as quill pens — and even chalk. The modern classroom must haves include Smartboards and significantly advanced projection and audio capacity for cross-platform tools — DVDs, flash media, cable, wifi, and now, HDTV or the next new thing.

Students, of course, "must have" a stash of the latest electronics, and even universities have been known to issue iPods and Blackberries to new students in the hope that these devices would entice learners to pay attention. Yes, the student must be able to read, at the very least to follow instructions to download tunes or upload messages in the new language of instant messaging — btw r u or (: or lol about this? imho more like {:

But real reading…. like real writing… requires some additional tools that seem in very short supply in modern life.

First, reading requires time. In modern life, though, the idea of sitting with a book for an hour or two is seen as unproductive, even slothful, something we dream of doing at some leisure moment. We don't think anything of spending two hours at the keyboard, or watching a movie. But reading in the corner for an hour — how curious, is there something the matter with you?

Second, reading requires quiet, even silence. Where do we teach children to enjoy the kind of quiet solitude that helps them to understand the text in front of them? The calm, the quiet of the reading mode runs counter to the modern fascination with earbuds and itunes.

Third — breaking that silence in a good way — learning to read also requires the spoken word in the best learning context. Reading aloud to children is a long-proven method for promoting good reading abilities and habits later in life. How many adults take the time to read to their children or other children on a consistent basis? (Good heavens, we might miss another episode of CSI!)

At Trinity, the faculty are clearly devoted to ensuring proficient reading, writing, quantitative and analytical skills in students. But the deficiencies of elementary and secondary education sometimes overwhelm even the most earnest student and most devoted teacher. The problem of reading cannot be solved at the collegiate level — reading proficiency must begin in the earliest classrooms.

Trinity's faculty also knows that even at the collegiate level, the teachers must be good role models for students when it comes to reading. So, the faculty conduct a monthly book club that has become quite popular among faculty and staff — and even students are welcome to participate. The book club has the added benefit of promoting a great deal of interdisciplinary conversation that enlivens thinking about curricula and and course development.

My own devotion to books means that at any given time, I probably have a half dozen books in various stages of completion or re-reading (presently: Alice Hogge's God's Secret Agents: Queen Elizabeth's Secret Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpowder Plot; Candice Millard's River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey; Joseph Ellis' Founding Brothers; Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven; Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran). I recommend them all. Whatever isn't finished by June goes with me to the Adirondacks where, for two glorious weeks, I indulge completely in the stealthy pleasure of sitting for hours …… and just reading. Imagine!

Other blogs on topics in education: Education

They danced again on Bourbon Street, and Dick Clark counted down to midnight as the ball dropped in Times Square. So much the same, yet all is changed, the semblance of normalcy belying nature's ravages. Having suffered such catastrophic blows — Katrina's destruction in New Orleans, Clark's stroke two years ago — everyone would have understood if the revelers had stayed away, if Clark had stayed home. Instead, they came out for all the world to see, damages obvious, but spirits triumphant, images of hope at the dawn of the new year.

Hope is the great light illuminating the start of each new year. Hope is the ballast for all those resolutions to be better people, somehow kinder, fitter, healthier, wiser. We start each year confirmed in the belief that somehow, with the gifts of time, determination, and perhaps a bit of luck, we will achieve more happiness, security and peace. We generally don't get there, but we feel virtuous for the good intentions.

Hope eludes far too many citizens of the earth. For millions, the stroke of midnight on January 1 signifies just another day of misery. For those of us who have the privilege of reveling in the new year, finding ways to kindle hope in the lives of others must be among our more durable resolutions.