Shadows and Light: Education
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010If you live in Bloomington, Monroe County, then you may alternately feel that the presence of the university casts shadows or light on your life…or maybe both at once. I love IU as an alumn and perhaps have taken greater advantage of it for learning as a more happy go lucky student of life– than I ever did cherish it as a real student.
In the course of writing up something for a web update I came across this when looking for some information about Indiana University’s history: A sampling of quotes from past inaugurations: IU News Room
The following quotes are very striking with shadows and light, foreboding…and relevance, to all of us today:
William Lowe Bryan, IU’s 10th president, reminded his audience on Jan. 1, 1903, “What the people need and demand is that their children shall have a chance — as good a chance as any other children in the world — to make the most of themselves, to rise in any and every occupation, including those occupations which require the most thorough training. What the people want is open paths from every corner of the state through the schools to the highest and best things which men can achieve. To make such paths, to make them open to the poorest and make them lead to the highest, is the mission of democracy.”
Herman B Wells, Bryan’s successor, echoed his remarks in his address on Dec. 1, 1938, as events leading to World War II progressed in Europe, “Faith in education has been a dominant feature of our society since the beginning of the republic — a faith so strong that through private philanthropy and public taxation a school system has been built unparalled elsewhere in the world. Throughout the history of our nation, there has been a deep-rooted conviction that a democratic form of government could be made operative only by educated men and women. Today, there is a challenge to that form. For the first time in several generations, the trend toward democracy has been arrested. Never was the university’s responsibilities for the development of character of greater significance than at the present hour.”