Changing the World Through Sharing What We Have Learned: My Philosophy of Education

CHANGING THE WORLD THROUGH SHARING WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED: MY PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

 

By Rob Chappell, M.A.

 

An Address to the UIUC Chapter of the

Golden Key International Honor Society

November 30, 2006

 

 

Introduction

 

        Ladies and gentlemen, members of Golden Key and honored guests:

         It is an honor and a privilege to be here with you this evening.  I can still remember my own reception into Golden Key, which took place on October 27, 1988 in this very same building.  Having come full circle, from being a neophyte to an alumnus of our great society, I would like to share with you some brief reflections on what can make our academic achievements most meaningful.

          As juniors and seniors at the University of Illinois, you are well on your way toward completing the undergraduate portion of your academic journey.  Some of you are no doubt making plans to attend graduate or professional school; while for others, the real world is beckoning through internships and the prospect of full-time employment.  No matter what your plans may be following graduation, you will still be faced with some momentous questions that I would like to put before you tonight.  What makes a college education meaningful, and why do we, as members of Golden Key, strive to achieve academic excellence at university?

          The answers may vary from person to person, and that is only to be expected, for there are many possible reasons why each of us has chosen to follow the path to scholastic excellence.  Admission to graduate or professional school, lucrative job opportunities, and the satisfaction of becoming a well-rounded individual are all laudable in and of themselves.  But I would submit to you that there is one reason to strive for academic achievement that surpasses all of these, without negating the others in any way.

          The highest goal to which we can aspire as members of Golden Key is to seize the opportunity to share what we have learned with others.  Learning profound truths about the world and thinking great thoughts are wonderful exercises for the mind – but they can only become meaningful if we share them with others.  Our parents and teachers, the professors and administrators of the University, and the agencies that have funded your education here, are all expecting something from us once we leave the classroom and dormitory behind, and that something is that somehow, somewhere, at sometime in the future, we will use what we have learned here to help change the world for the better.  This goal is put very eloquently by Captain John Sheridan in an episode from the second season of Babylon 5:

We have to make people lift their eyes back to the horizon, and see the line of ancestors behind us, saying, “Make my life have meaning.”  And to our inheritors before us, saying, “Create the world we will live in.”  I mean, we're not just holding jobs and having dinner.  We are in the process of building the future.

-- Episode #37: “And Now for a Word”

         How can we build the future by sharing what we have learned?  This endeavor can take manifold forms.  One person can become a volunteer mentor to schoolchildren at risk.  Another person may write a weblog about a recent study tour to Brazil.  Still another will present a seminar about how to stamp out hatred in a nearby city.  Do whatever you feel led to do – but be sure that you do something to make the world a better place because of what you have learned here, both inside and outside the classroom.

          As an alumnus of the School of Humanities at UIUC, allow me to share with you two brief examples of how sharing what we have learned can make the world a better place.  They are examples drawn from classic literature – from books that I hope you will read at some time in the future, if you haven’t perused them already.

I. The Gilgamesh Epic (Anonymous, Circa 2000 BC)

         In the Gilgamesh Epic, which was composed over 4000 years ago in Mesopotamia, the hero, King Gilgamesh, undertakes heroic deeds with his friend Enkidu to rescue people from dangerous monsters.  When Enkidu falls ill and dies, Gilgamesh goes on a final quest to find the secret of immortality.  Although the king fails to attain endless longevity, he does obtain lasting fame because, when he returned to his home city from all his adventures, he shared his experiences with his subjects and taught them what he had learned from his globetrotting adventures.  As the epic poet wrote of King Gilgamesh:

He who has seen everything, I will make known to the lands.  I will teach about him who experienced all things alike; Anu granted him the totality of knowledge of all.  He saw the Secret, discovered the Hidden; he brought information of the time before the Flood.  He went on a distant journey, pushing himself to exhaustion, but then was brought to peace.  Take and read out from the lapis lazuli tablet how Gilgamesh went through every hardship.  He walked through darkness and so glimpsed the light.

-- Gilgamesh Epic: Tablets I & XII

          Whatever historical truth may lie behind his legend, Gilgamesh is remembered still today because the life lessons that he exemplified are timeless truths that appear again and again throughout world literature.  Mortality will come to us all, Gilgamesh would say, but while life lasts, let us spend it in service to others through heroic deeds and teaching wisdom by example.

II. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum (1902)

          In L. Frank Baum’s classic holiday tale, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, we meet a young man named Claus, a human foundling raised by the immortal denizens of an enchanted forest.  In his young manhood, he chose to dwell among mortal humans because he wanted to share the joys of his own happy childhood with the children of humankind.  At first he simply played, sang, and shared stories with the children who lived near his home in the Laughing Valley of Hohaho, but afterward, he “invented” the first toys and spread the joy of giving Yuletide gifts around the world.  Unlike Gilgamesh, Claus obtained endless life within the circles of the world, when the immortals who had raised him endowed him with the Mantle of Immortality.  They gave Claus such a momentous gift because Claus had seen that the lives of mortal children in that long-ago time were filled with drudgery and misery, and he had determined to correct this injustice by sharing with them the fruits of his experience – namely, that a happy childhood, filled with kindness and giving, could lay the foundation for a better world when the children grow up.

          Baum summarizes so eloquently the lessons to be drawn from his mythical biography of Santa Claus that they require no further comment on my part.  He writes:

Everything perishes except the world itself and its keepers.  But while life lasts, everything on earth has its use.  The wise seek ways to be helpful to the world, for the helpful ones are sure to live again. ... Yet every man has his mission, which is to leave the world better, in some way, than he found it.

-- Book I, Chapters 6 & 7

It is true that great warriors and mighty kings and clever scholars of that day were often spoken of by the people; but no one of them was so greatly beloved as Santa Claus, because none other was so unselfish as to devote himself to making others happy.  For a generous deed lives longer than a great battle or a king's decree or a scholar's essay, because it spreads and leaves its mark on all nature and endures through many generations.

-- Book II, Chapter 11

“In all this world there is nothing so beautiful as a happy child,” says good old Santa Claus; and if he had his way, the children would all be beautiful, for all would be happy.

-- Book III, Chapter 3

Conclusion

          To me, these principles are not just words printed on a page; I have had the privilege to see them in action as I have pursued my own career as an administrative professional at the University of Illinois.  After obtaining my master’s degree, I spent three years at the Graduate College managing its Information Office.  There, I met and fell in love with student services – which led me to the College of ACES and its James Scholar Honors Program, where I have been working with hundreds of gifted students like you for the past six-and-a-half years.  Sharing educational experiences with them has had a profound impact on me.  Through my time spent with these future leaders of government and industry, my own hope for the future has been rekindled, for I see in them a sincere desire to serve humanity through their chosen career paths, both now and after graduation – and that’s what sharing one’s education with others is all about.

          There is one final thought that I’d like to leave with you tonight – sharing your educational experiences is contagious, and it never has to end.  It begins with you and then spreads out to the people around you until it becomes a chain reaction that has the potential to transform our society in ways that we can only dimly imagine now.  You may never know if that fellow classmate, younger sibling, niece, nephew, or child of yours is going to turn out to be the next Albert Einstein or Marie Curie.  That’s what makes sharing your education with others so exciting – you will never fail to be surprised by the friends that you make and the goals that you can help them to achieve.  As for me, I’m eagerly waiting to see what the ACES James Scholars are going to do next year, next decade, and so on and so on, into the bright human future among the stars that we all fervently wish for.

          Tonight, you are being recognized as new members of the Golden Key International Honor Society.  I would like to challenge you to discover how you can use your University of Illinois education to benefit the people and institutions that you will come into contact with throughout the rest of your life.  Golden Key will be most grateful – as will all the people who have supported your educational endeavors – if you will use your membership to unlock the door to a future of lifelong service to others, which will inevitably lead to a better world for us all.  In closing, let us remember and take to heart the words of Captain Sheridan from Babylon 5:

I mean, we're not just holding jobs and having dinner.  We are in the process of building the future.

         Congratulations to you all, thank you, and good night!  J

 

The cover of the original 1902 edition of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum.