COMMENCEMENT SPEECH
Eastern Michigan University
April 25, 1993
THE AMERICAN MIND
Thomas A. Fleming
COMMENCEMENT SPEECH
Eastern Michigan University
April 25, 1993
THE AMERICAN MIND
Greetings: Congratulations
Introduction: Today you will have one more quiz.
I. The Ouestion: posed by social critics, educators, our
contemporaries here and in other countries...
A. Background - forms of the question by
Alan Bloom - The Closing of the American Mind,
1987
Mortimer Adler - Reforming Education: The
Opening of the American Mind, 1988
William Bennett - The De-Valuint of the American
Mind, 1992
Cornell West, bell hooks - Breaking Bread, 19Cornell West - Race Matters, 1993
Howard Gardner - To Open Minds, 1989 (describing
the "dilemma of contemporary education)
.
B. The Ouestion Evaluated
11. The Ouestion Rephrased
I
- more personally, to you and
A. My Experience
B. It is a Ouestion for You Today
111. Many Ouestions, Many Answers
Closing: Congratulations to the Class of 1993
COMMENCEMENT SPEECH
Eastern Michigan University
April 25, 1993
THE AMERICAN MIND
Greetines: (Acknowledgements to individuals, grads, guests)
Congratulations and good day! I stand here with joy at
the fulfillment of one of my life-long dreams: to address a
group of students at graduation, at the commencement of a
new chapter in your lives!
I stand here with pride in my alma mater, Eastern
Michigan University, a vibrant and ever-changing institution;
a place where, 25 years ago, I began a new chapter in my own
life; and where I feel, today, the energy of expectation both
in myself and within this audience.
And I stand here with humility, knowing that you and I
rest today not merely on our personal work and struggle, but
on the gifts and sacrifices of many others, and because of the
unearned miracles that each new day of life brings to us.
Introduction:
Having come to believe in the practice of approaching
every new problem as a challenge and an opportunity, I ask
you to do the same as I place before you, with some apprehension, a quiz. Now, I realize you have finished all your
papers and passed all your exams...but, on this graduation
day, I want to ask you just one last - multiple choice question. And I will even try to give you some help as you
decide on the answer!
I. The Ouestion:
This question has been posed, in a variety of ways, by
sociologists, educators, religious leaders, journalists, philosophers and politicians of all persuasions, and by our contemporaries in other countries:
The American Mind: Is it
A. Closing
B. Becoming De-Valued
C. Opening
D. Re-forming
or E. All of the above?
A. Background:
It is not really a simple question. I have been intrigued
by it, though, because it is being asked by so many public
figures who are concerned about the moral, intellectual, and
social condition of our nation. I'd like to mention some of
these people, and then think about what the question might
mean to us here today.
Alan Bloom, a social scientist at the University of
Chicago, wrote The Closin~of the American Mind in 1987.
In it he declared that modern colleges are not preparing their
students for the challenges of the future. The purpose of
education, he says, is to enrich and elevate the soul by
exposing students to the great ideas of Western civilization.
He observes that since the 1950's and 60's universities have
begun to tolerate and even encourage the idea that truth is
relative. Psychology is replacing religion, and one idea is seen
as good as another. Universities have become mired in the
problems of society rather than providing the foundations of
knowledge. The result of all this is that young people "[lack]
an understanding of the past and a vision of the future."
Mortimer J. Adler, author of many books on philosophy
and education, published reform in^ Education: The Opening
of the American Mind, in 1988. Adler also decries the
"abandonment" of the idea of universal values and truths.
"Truth" has become only that which is scientifically verifiable,
and we have come to believe that values are relative. His
solution is "Paideia" (py-dee-a) a proposal for educational
reform, in which students engage the great ideas of the past
and learn to think them through for themselves. His concern
is to educate minds for democracy.
A controversial figure in the debate over the American
Mind has been William Bennett, the former Secretary of
Education and Drug Czar. I have had the pleasure of meeting
and hearing Mr. Bennett speak, and I must say that he
presents a provocative mixture of politics and intellectual and
moral insight. In The De-Valuing of the American Mind,
1992, Bennett writes of his concern that "...our educational
institutions are not doing well at teaching our students to
speak, write, read, think, and count ...or [helping them]
develop reliable standards of right and wrong that will guide
them through life." In his view, universities which respond to
students' demands to set their own educational agendas and
which opt for greater cultural diversity in the curriculum may
"no longer have the intellectual authority to say to students
what the outcome of a college education ought to be."
Bennett contends that we do not worry enough about what is
"worth knowing, worth defending, and worth believing." He
refers to the debate on these issues as "culture wars," in
which what he terms the "common culture," once conveyed
through our humanities programs, is being lost to mere
"tolerance" of any idea or cultural value.
Cornell West, co-author with bell hooks of Breaking
Bread and author of Race Matters and other books on the
Black intellectual, provides important insights in this debate
from the African-American perspective. West and hooks are
fierce but loving critics, appealing for moral and intellectual
maturity in the Black community. They call for enlightened
leadership to develop new paradigms for resisting the
breakdown of community by racism, sexism, classism, and
poverty. Again, these authors say, we must think about our
problems in new ways if we are to build the alliancesneeded
to solve them.
Howard Gardner, in his 1989 book The Open Mind
(subtitled "The Dilemma of Contemporary Education"),
brings an upbeat note to this discussion of the American
Mind. He recounts the excitement of learning from "the
masters" at Cambridge University in an atmosphere of
freedom and creativity. And a number of educational reformers today emphasize the importance of choices in education not merely choice between public and private schooling, but
the provision of real options for students and teachers which
empower them and energize the educational experience. An
open mind, at this end of the debate, is freed from too much
authoritarian control.
B. The Ouestion Evaluated -
I think the critics and reformers perform a great service
when they poke and prod us to consider what is happening
and what should happen to the American Mind. I think we
should be asking ourselves:
" What kinds of thoughts are occupying our Ameri
can minds?
" How & we think; and have we really learned to
think?
" And which ideas will dominate the decisions that
we face about any number of issues?
A good question: The American Mind: Is it closing,
being de-valued, opening, reforming...?
11. The Ouestion Rephrased
-
Though today's question asks about our minds, I believe
it speaks very much to American hearts, deeds, and lives. I
believe this question must be asked not only at colleges and
universities and in governmental agencies; but in classrooms,
in business places, in places of worship, in our homes, and,
most importantly, within each one of us.
To reshape this question more personally, I'd like to tell
you something of what it means to me, in my own life.
A. My Experience
On the day of my sixth grade graduation from the
Thomas Elementary School in Detroit, I could hardly wait to
march up to receive my certificate. I remember thinking, after
six stormy years of being kicked out of school and negotiated
back by my loving grandmother, Carrie Bell Starks, I was
ready for a change. I was ready to move on to Middle School
-- back then it was called Intermediate High School.
But when the principal, Mrs. Neil, called me to her office
that morning I knew I was in trouble. As kindly as she could,
she told me: "Thomas, I'm sorry, but you will not be going to
the Intermediate School with your class. We have decided to
send you to a school where you will receive help for your
"slow" performance". "Slow it was one of the many labels I
would hear at Capron - my new school.
ff
Capron Non-Graded School served a large area of
Det~oit'sEast-Side. I had to catch the street car on Gratiot
&and
after a long ride to Russell Street, I walked three
more blocks to the school. It was a rough place. Usually the
larger kids beat up the smaller and younger kids. I paid my
lunch money as "protection dues" and still got beatenup. I
can't remember learning anything that school year. Later, my
family moved from the East side to the West side of Detroit.
I was accepted in that community and finally made new
friends.
.
But I dropped out of school mentally around age
thirteen, and physically at sixteen. Five years after quitting
school, stationed in France in the U.S. Army, I had to face
the profoundness of the handicap of illiteracy. During a
period of depression, almost 3,000 miles from home, I
remembered the advice my grandmother had given me:
"Don't forget to pray and read the Bible when you are
worried or feeling lonely." But the words on the page before
me were only meaningless marks and scribbles.
Just as vivid in my memory as the impact of that moment
is the exhilaration of reading the entire chapter of a book for
the first time. With the help of a group of caring soldiers, I
was led, word by word, through the sixteenth chapter of The
Gospel According to Mark. What made this such a significant
event in my life is that I understood what I was reading. That
breakthrough was so exciting and so liberating that my thirst
for reading has never left me. It was the beginning of the
opening of my mind.
From that point on, the journey - from a chapter to an
entire book, to the exploration of a library, to the accumulation of a personal library - was a journey of discovering that
books had ideas that were meaninful to me, to my life, and
to my understanding of the world. My journey from the GED
to the Bachelor's of Religious Education to the Master's in
Special Education involved a growing conviction that ideas
were to be pursued on a path with a dream at the end of it.
As I moved from working with youth in a storefront church
program in Detroit, to assisting in the therapy of youth in the
adolescent unit of a treatment center in Ypsilanti, to teaching
troubled youth in the Washtenaw County Juvenile Detention
Center, I developed a passion for reaching into and understanding the minds of kids who were a lot like me.
Because of this journey, questions about the activity of
the mind have become a fascination for me. I now know that
minds can close and remain undeveloped; that prejudices can
rule one's thinking and cause us to de-value ourselves and
others. I also know that minds can be opened and liberated
through compassionate guidance and new life experiences,
even when one has previously "dropped out" or has been
neglected, abused, or troubled for a long time. I have 1e.arned
that minds, and lives, can be re-formed through self-discovery
and education in the arts, sciences, law, technology, and any
other field of study and practice.
B. It is a Ouestion for You Today
So I'd like to suggest to YOU, graduates, and to you,
family members and friends and colleagues, that the debate
going on in America must be lived out in each one of us. I
believe that we must accept ownership of this debate, and of
the important questions it raises. We ought to take great
pride in our accomplishments, which we celebrate today, but
we must also be willing to look critically at ourselves and use
that information to set goals for the further improvement of
our selves and our society.
I have received some help in this regard from a book by
Steven R. Covey: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People. Mr. Covey describes the difference between "Primary
Greatness" and "Secondary Greatness." Primary greatness
comes from within, and is based on principles; secondary
greatness depends on "social mirrors," that is, on other
people telling us how great we are. Primary greatness
acknowledges that ideals as well as ideas are fundamental to
a life that is meaningful. Secondary greatness is preoccupied
with the outward trappings of success: money, appearance,
status.
111. Many Ouestions, Many Answers
I challenge you today to ask yourself any number of
questions related to our original question - but personalized!
You can write the exam yourself! Perhaps you could ask:
" What is the purpose of your education?
" What are the great ideas, and ideals, you think are
worth living by, or dying for?
" What lessons can you learn from the lives of great
men and women of history; and do you think it's
possible that you could inspire someone else?
Your answers to these many questions, which began as
one question, will not be written down; they must b e lived.
There most certainly are many right answers in your future.
Today is the day on which you enter that larger university the university of life - and I wish you a good journey!
Closing:
I would like to close with a comment about Eastern
Michigan University. This wonderful educational institution
has a history of producing some of the finest teachers and
professionals in the nation. It is a university which is not
looking back, but forward in developing American minds that
will lead us into the future. To you, the class of 1993, who
today become distinguished alumni of Eastern Michigan
University, and to you caring and dependable parents and
relatives witnessing this accomplishment, I again extend my
heartiest congratulations! Thank you.
Thomas A. Fleming?
1992 National Teacher of the Year