To the Editor:
Re "College Advice, From People Who Have Been There Awhile," a collection of nine Op-Ed essays on Sept. 6:
Create opportunities for yourself — this is my advice to college students. Be proactive and seek mentorship from professors whose research interests are closely aligned to your own.
Immerse yourself fully in this field of study and find ways of making your research relevant to society at large. In this era of globalization, it is vital to keep asking the question: how is my work relevant on the international stage?
Do not be afraid to take risks by stepping outside your personal and academic comfort zones. Apply for competitive international scholarship programs. The application process, while long and arduous, is a valuable learning experience that will help to clarify your goals.
College is a rigorous, exhilarating process. As you set off to forge your own path, make it your mission to seek out research and fellowship opportunities along the way. The rewards are tremendously fulfilling, and in the end you will become a more adaptable and globally minded citizen of the world.
Lindsay Chura
Cambridge, England, Sept. 6, 2009
The writer, a Mount Holyoke graduate, is a Gates Scholar at Cambridge University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Australia in 2006-7.
•
To the Editor:
I was disappointed that not one member of your panel of sages advised incoming freshmen to take a course in art, music or both.
While no one would dispute that all college students should absorb and understand works by Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton and other members of the "indispensable canon," the understanding and appreciation of the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Brueghel, Rembrandt, Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven (among others) are no less important.
The American scholar and author Thomas Merton got it exactly right when he wrote, "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
Richard Kavesh
Nyack, N.Y., Sept. 7, 2009
The writer teaches social studies at the Bronx School of Law and Finance.
•
To the Editor:
I enjoyed the sage advice for first-year students offered by my esteemed colleagues from many of our nation's premier four-year colleges and universities. Yet I can't help but juxtapose it to the message given upon admission to community college students: do something practical; declare a career major right away; the liberal arts won't prepare you for a job.
Reading the classics, becoming politically engaged and casting a broad intellectual net by learning to think critically are essential messages that are just as important to present to the poor, working-class and students of color enrolled in community colleges.
Lisa Hale Rose
Brooklyn, Sept. 6, 2009
The writer is an associate professor in the department of social science and human services at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY.
•
To the Editor:
I taught biology for about 55 years and was interested to read the good advice that was offered by college faculty.
One piece of advice that I didn't see was that students should take a course and gain as much experience as possible in public speaking. No matter what career students pursue, they will have to stand up and speak to a group of people sometime, and they are usually not well prepared to do so.
Also, I would emphasize the importance of experiences. We learn from everything that we do, and everything that we do becomes part of who we are.
Each student is unique. I have always emphasized that someone can be taller, smarter or richer, but nobody is better than someone else. A college education should help students identify and nurture his or her special talents.
The broad mission of teachers is to provide meaningful, motivational experiences that enrich the lives of students and help them identify their unique traits and where they fit in life. To me, that's what a college education should be all about.
Marvin Druger
Syracuse, Sept. 6, 2009
The writer is professor emeritus in biology and science education at Syracuse University.
•
To the Editor:
The advice from Stanley Fish about composition courses ("The Hunt for a Good Teacher") is right on the mark for incoming college students.
Forty-nine years ago this month, I enrolled in a required first-year composition course. My instructor, a senior member of the English department, conveyed a sense of deeply investing himself in teaching composition.
Inspired by this experience, I made my way in the next semester into an optional course best described as intermediate English composition. I found it rewarding and fulfilling.
What I learned in my English composition courses I have distilled into advice that I subsequently imparted, over and over again, to my own first-year students during nearly 40 years as a professor of American history: if you will not devote yourself to learning to write, you will discover yourself hampered and frustrated by your inability to think effectively.
Writing and thinking stand among the keys to learning.
Michael H. Ebner
Lake Forest, Ill., Sept. 8, 2009
The writer is professor emeritus of American history at Lake Forest College.
•
To the Editor:
Re "Get Lost. In Books.": However much I appreciated Harold Bloom's advice to college freshmen (read Homer, Plato, the Bible and so on), I was disappointed at how few female authors he had included in his indispensable canon.
In addition to Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson and George Eliot, I'd suggest that Virginia Woolf, Daphne du Maurier, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Iris Murdoch, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison, the great biographer Nancy Milford and Margaret Atwood, among others, have more than earned places on a 21st-century reading list.
Alison Corbett
Boulder, Colo., Sept. 6, 2009
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment