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As Goes Harvard...
Freshman orientation is undoubtedly one of the most exciting and nerve-racking times for any undergraduate. It is an incoming student's first sustained impression of an institution's intellectual climate and the corresponding expectations and responsibilities of becoming a part of the school community. First impressions do in lasting ways define the rest of the college experience. That makes it both a time of great opportunity and of great vulnerability. Unfortunately, in recent years, the growing trend has been for administrations to go beyond their authority of acclimatizing freshmen into the realm of indoctrination or "treatment" programs, most notoriously at the University of Delaware and Hamilton College. . In response, ACTA has issued a number of publications, like our "Trouble in the Dorms" guide to residential life programs for higher education trustees.
The latest twist on the theme is at Harvard. Former Harvard College Dean and current professor of computer science Harry Lewis has rightly raised the alarm over a new Class of 2015 freshman pledge that the administration is "inviting" all freshmen to sign. It invites a student's written affirmation of his devotion to "the exercise of kindness... on a par with intellectual attainment."
Lewis points out - "The substance of the pledge is critically important. This is not a pledge to refrain from cheating, or to take out the garbage. It is not a pledge to act in a certain way. It is a pledge to think about the world a certain way, to hold precious the exercise of kindness. It is a promise to control one's thoughts."
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with encouraging kindness, quite the contrary. Lewis stresses that he agrees with the ends. But the means matter. And though technically voluntary, it is the administration which is offering the pledge, a pledge that will be hung in public for all to see -- who has pledged, and who has not. Lewis believes, "Few students, in their first week at Harvard, would have the courage to refuse this invitation. I am not sure I would advise any student to do so."
So the pledge goes too far. But then, at the same time, it doesn't go far enough. The faculty, Lewis points out, is omitted from any pledge of kindness. "After all, there is plenty of faculty rudeness too; why would we not ask the faculty to join in this communitarian commitment? His answer: "The way to create a kind community is to model kindness, not to tell the most junior members they should be kind while not expecting others to meet the same standard."
ACTA concurs. Whatever the intentions, pledges like these harm intellectual communities more than they benefit them. They don't demand thought; they demand allegiance. We echo Lewis' aversion to such a prospect and his call for freshmen at orientation to read Emerson's Self-Reliance, as they did in years past. "It is an ennobling and empowering essay, but it also makes it clear that Emerson would have been the roommate from hell. I think, if the Pledge had been around in his day, he would have refused to sign it."
Posted by Max Brindle on August 31, 2011 at August 31, 2011 11:08 AM
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