Ethics and values

We at the St. Paul House have often talked of the importance of enacting our values in all sectors of our lives. This integration is a key component of social change. For us, it is an enormous privilege to have internships that are meaningful often align with our values. There may be times where we will have to find a paycheck just to survive, but we will keep our values and our passions close, finding venues to express them. 

Things we have learned

In Japan, all there of us interned for an organization called Asian Rural Institute,. Although, we all interning at the same oIn Japan, all there of us interned for an organization called Asian Rural Institute,. Although, we all interning at the same organization, we wanted to explore difficult topics. 

What Have We Learned After All?

"Social advance depends as much upon the process through which it is secured as upon the result itself." --Jane Addams


As our LSC experience winds to a close, the Northfield house would like to digest further the following (in no particular order of importance):

The Art of Value

Paul Knutson is Rice County’s Assessor; his job is to go to each property in Rice County and declare how much value each property has. When asked what method he used to measure “value,” Paul responded, “What I do is not a science. It is an art. You might tell me that the house across the street from here is worth $100,000. But I’d tell you that it’s worth $150,000. Value is completely subjective.”

Not an Intruder – Just an Intern

"“Ma’am, don’t leave your post!” the bailiff nearly shouted into the phone. “I think we’ve got an intruder. Don’t let him leave, and don’t you dare let him take anything out of that backpack!”"

Artes Liberales: Alma Mater*

A reflective response to Donald Kagan’s Farewell Speech, "Ave Atque Vale"

Having little or no sense of the human experience through the ages, of what has been tried, of what has succeeded and what has failed, of what is the price of cherishing some values as opposed to others, or of how values relate to one another, they leap from acting as though anything is possible, without cost, to despairing that nothing is possible.

The Great White Conversation

The liberal arts have been known for their teaching of the "classics" - Plato, Socrates, Shakespeare. By appreciating the classics, we can learn from history... only with such a background can we create informative and innovative ideas that progress us into a "good life" and a more beneficial future. I experienced this firsthand through St. Olaf's Great Conversation program my first two years of college - or what we liked to call it: The Great White Conversation.

Liberal Arts and Cultural Disconect

Kagan in his farewell speech "Ave atque vale" evaluates the evolution of liberal arts education. He criticized the failure of modern liberal arts colleges:

Class room learning can be very theoretical. The books we read and topics we cover in our courses can be very abstract.

Allegiance and Devotion

As students of the liberal arts, we are driven to enhance our understanding of the world, to seek truth, to foster discussion and productive criticism, to question what we have been taught is reality, to avoid taking things at face value, and to enrich our own education experience. We select majors, degrees, concentrations, focuses, and studies to prepare ourselves for a specific career or life path, and we expect that our liberal arts education will enable us to be effective, successful, fulfilled, and contributive individuals.

Free and Humble

Liberal arts education is supposed to make us free. Its also supposed to make us creative. Think of the most bizarre thing you can think of- an alien, say. Now go back to the figure you have on your mind and think about what constitutes the alien- I bet all the things you have used are the things that you have seen before.

Ave atque vale... et te contradic?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, what really sparked me into thinking about the liberal arts recently was a job posting I stumbled upon (or as a liberal arts professor might phrase it, a job posting upon which I stumbled).  The posting was for a government agency in Vermont, and it advertized an entry-level position for a student just completing either a graduate or an undergraduate degree in planning.

Education of Exploration

 I am someone who is passionate about music and the arts in general, but I feel somewhat unfulfilled by my music studies at Olaf.  I feel that my music major has only really prepared me to become a better musician… and nothing more. 

Life's "Important Questions"

In his essay "Ave Atque Vale," Donald Kagan laments the current state of liberal education in the U.S., comparing it to the education received by English gentlemen in the eighteenth century, which "prized sociability over the solitude of hard study." According to Kagan, liberal education has abandoned its quest of knowledge as an end in itself, failing to provide undergraduates with a common philosophical and historical foundation upon which to discuss life's important questions.

Natural sciences vs. social sciences

               As a non-natural science or mathematics major, I find a problem with Kagan’s assertion that, within a modern liberal arts education, only those majoring in the natural sciences or mathematics come to appreciate learning and “knowledge as a good in themselves.”

Perspectives on the Liberal Arts

Donald Kagan writes,  "Instead, I find a kind of cultural void, an ignorance of the past, a sense of rootlessness and aimlessness, as though not only the students but also the world was born yesterday, a feeling that they are attached to the society in which they live only incidentally and accidentally."

Knowing Something of Everything

Kagan says, of free men in ancient society, that they "must know something of everything and understand general principles without yielding to the narrowness of expertise."

Kagan, the Liberal Arts, and the Environment

In his writing, Kagan states very clearly that, "we must all think about our values, responsibilities, and our relationships with one another and with the society in which we live. This is the purpose of a liberal arts education. He goes on to include possible studies like history, philosophy  and the arts. He also importantly notes the importance of a moral and civic education. However, there is one key part missing from all of this: The environment.

Pride and Precedent

“Having little or no sense of the human experience through the ages, of what has been tried, of what has succeeded and what has failed, of what is the price of cherishing some values as opposed to others, or of how values relate to one another, they leap from acting as though anything is possible, without cost, to despairing that nothing is possible.”

The Future of Liberal Arts

The Limitations of Free Speech

Freedom of speech is often heralded as a core value of American society, and Kagan clearly calls for its necessity in liberal arts education, but I question whether there are some limitations to free speech. I think back to the many, many hurtful comments that have been permitted on campus and off, guarded by the sanctity of free speech. I think back to the casual racist epithets that are used behind closed dorm doors, to the hurtful name-calling of my high school days, and to the homophobic free speech that has caused many of my friends so much pain.

The Generation to Watch - For What Reason?

       In generational terms, success always seems relative. Donald Kagan, an American historian at Yale University, paints our present generation as a doubting, aimless, bipolar mass of individuals that fail to understand their own isolation. Or, apparently, their own potential.

       According to Kagan, the liberal arts system of today "[fails] to enhance students' understanding of their role as free citizens ... and the responsibilities it entails" (emphasis mine). In our increasingly individualistic society, the continued emphasis on success and ambition crowds out the harmonizing, solid foundation of community.

       Kagan still fears our loss of "a sense of the human experience through the age." This may seem abstract, but the meaning remains quite clear: hidden in the history and literature of the past lies personalized messages of struggle and transformation. Yet if we do not view it as our "responsibility" to grasp these ideals for ourselves, we will indeed drift away into the "rootlessness" of which Kagan spoke.

       A simple example: the distractions of social media. Just the other day, my elder sister mentioned the difficulty of maintaining motivation for higher learning when our minds were filled with scraps of news from Facebook and Twitter.

       "We unintentionally absorb hundreds of pieces of information while scrolling through a page," she said. And that, more than anything, takes up space in our minds.

       Can we comprehend our responsibility to this earth and its history? Perhaps, if we flush out the other bits of fluff. It is difficult to wade through the griping about the laziness of the Millennial generation, but I have found one thing about our generation that surprises me the most: we are most confident that we - as individuals - can personally impact the world.

         Perhaps we do understand our own potential.

    

Liberal Arts in a Financially-Driven World

"As Professor Kagan noted, we no longer live in a world driven by the inculcation of values, nor by the quest of pure knowledge. Rather, we, as a society, understand freedom in a financial sense. In that way, liberal arts institutions do indeed promote freedom for their students – in that its students are free to make money in whatever way they choose. At St. Olaf, evidence of this abounds."

Leadership Conversation over Shortcake

During our community conversation this week, Sudip started us off with an interesting fact: the lag between research and implementation of research (especially in politics) is 20 years. 20 years for something proven to work or make a system better to be put into action! We all thought that that does 

A Brief Conversation about Leadership

Leaders are the face of organizations. In the social impact sector, we believe that leaders hold the role to make connections with people, offer support, and become involved with the people who can help create change. Good leaders should have a strong sense of the organization’s culture and values that they bring into practice in daily life, they should be humble yet conscious about the power they hold, and always look for innovative ways to reach their goals.