Some one propped a book against my door entitled
What’s The Problem?
I remember visiting a friend back in mid-century: new teacher
at a New England prep school, excited because his colleagues
as a whole decided that they would make
PROBLEM-SOLVING
heart of their rock & roll: their Core.
“These kids’ll get GOOD at problem solving,” he claimed.
“The whole school has worked this up together.”
The collaboration counts most: throwing IT together, together.
Together, throwing IT, not the “problem-solving ” resolution.
“Problem” Gk. pro + ballein: “thing thrown forward.”
“symbolic” : thrown together
“diabolical: thrown across
“parable” (parabolic): thrown beyond.
All in the “throwing it” family: symbolically, diabolically,
parabolically: getting good at all 3. On the ball.
Above, traditional October Bladderball Ceremony on Yale’s
Old Campus. Problematic: the heart of academics: throwing
IT. together. Having a ball. It’s the process that counts. Not
the finished product. Ludic: in game.
Pick a problem. Any problem. Come, let us season it together.
My friend’s enthusiasm reflected a late 60’s phenomena when
Educational Reform was hot as bell bottoms at Woodstock
non-snickerable,. A shared problem emerging in an environment
of innovation across the continent at places like College of the
for our own task-forced early 70’s strategic planning, and we
were proud of our proximity to Black Mountain College
house- keeping history we shared, gardening and farming
consultation as well as Sat. Nite Movie Nights. .
How to Make IT New? Throw it together, together.
E.F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful was our bible. And
A Guide for the Perplexed for muddling through,
At the same time: we were a new four-year fully accredited
liberal arts college, wanting to be regular like those other
guys at Davidson, Amherst , Bowdoin, Wooster , Guilford
conventional, traditional, predictable, dependable, normal,
sustainable, rigorous. .
At the same time: work and service were aspects we flaunted,
that made us different, alternative. . Our PR usually featured
students (preferably fem) on tractors, with pictures of cows
and pigs. until the faculty asked, “What about the library?
People in the laboratory with lab glasses on? Students in
a semi-circle on the lawn discussing Hamlet?
The rope swing? “
At the same time: we were under the aegis of the Presbyterian
Board of Missions, sensitive to the faith of founding mothers
and our mission of educating mountain youth plus 27 %
over seas students, mostly Arabs who an edge to our
“football” program
The PROBLEM: Torn between lovers all at the same time. :
Our love for Rigor & Traditional Conventional SACS- standard
Academic New Kid on the Block Respectability on the one hand
—a need for Professional legitimacy.
Our inchoate love for Innovation and Radical Change, bunch of
young turkeys motivated by a phase-shifting change in
administration with a Now What? attitude: our
spirit of Amateurism on the other hand..
BLUE SKY : everything up for grabs. Suspend belief and disbelief.
& put IT all in play —brain storming stochastic bullshitting
DOWN TO EARTH: appropriate resistance and cautious commitment
to mainstream sustainabilityand traditional grad-school vocationalism
Snickers and snorts on both sides of this great divide. Blue Sky for
heaven’s sakes and Down To Earth for crying out loud: us day
dream believers & yet also homecoming queens .
“IT tears at me, Jerry,” I whined to the incoming Dean Godard.
“Folks argue the need for rigorous professional academic
integrity one day and then boost Work & Service &
Innovation as our distinguishing character.—
depending on what suits their agenda.”
“But that’s GOOD,” said Jerry.
All the best schools I know have
been split like that: just right for
generating emergent values and
phenomena. A faculty that brays
together stays together.
Throwing IT! that’s what counts.
Problematics. Yes! Get better
and GOOD at IT!”
Something like that. He changed my outlook on what it means to be
a house divided. Ecological! “Without Contraries is No Progress.”
I know that, but don’t always have the courage of my distinctions. “.
This was a long time ago, hard to imagine playing with it like that
in these turbulent days of stress, turmoil and environmental depredation
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