What ACTUALLY Moves us (motivates, e-motivates)

Listen to the sound of this muse (oyez, obey, hark):
 
Pressed by competitive notions of “world class” education,
by the imperatives of changing international economic and
political power, and by student demands that their education
include opportunities to creatively tackle [note: split infinitive
in case you didn't know what it means to split infinity] real-world
challenges, colleges and universities are striving to become more
global.
 
Their efforts are made both more difficult and  more urgent
because they are taking place in the context of unsettling
economic instability, in the midst of profound demographic
change,  and in the face of wavering political commitment
 to broad learning.
 
Student expectations are driven by similar concerns.  Students
seek an education that will help them thrive in the future and
perhaps even change the world. They equate a high-quality
college education with an education that helps them find their
 place in the world, but they are also concerned about job
prospects in today's economy. Global positioning broadens
current conversations about student success—defined not by
the minimal level of completion but by the highest level of
expectation. (AAC&U conference call)
 
Global on the one hand. Local Food on the other. This is a foe
dichotomy, not faux. The 2  values are incommensurate. Let
Local Food be our Core, maybe: and all the rest of our program:
global positioning like anything in the midsts of profound demographic
change, global positioning broadening current conversation about
student success at the highest levels  of expectation.
 
                         &&&&&&&&&&&&&
 
We could have a discussion, a forum, an e-seminar across the
curriculum to consider  our Ways of Talking about The Liberal
Art (not to be collapsed, conflated, confused with the liberal arts
—our majors and minors and pre- professional primed for grad
school programs.  
 
The Pursuit of Knowledge & Intellectual Freedom kind
o f Talk  (Team POKIF) on the one hand (standard line, main
stream) and on the other hand…
 
…not sure how to reduce and  characterize a good antithesis to
POKIF; need help here. Maybe call it  What’s Actually Happening
(WAH)
 
             That would give us our foe-dichotomy:
 
          POKIF on the one hand;  WAH on the other. 
 
Crucial  to establish a clear either/or at base (fundament-al) in order 
to walk the talk properly; other wise it’s all like talking the talk or
walking the walk and who knew what great divide generated our
unavoidable confusion & clouds of un- knowing which nevertheless
keep us occupied and preoccupied without ever getting us back to
where we started from, our source generator: on the one hand and
on the other. Too soon the  calliope. Too many hands make hype
work & the sound of much  clapping.
 
          Pursuit of HAP-iness (HAP happening happily)
 
                    III.    Ways we Talk About
                           ways-we-talk-about WAH
I. What’s Actually       II .Ways we Talk about   
HAP happening  (WAH)          What’s Actually Happening
                                               
 
I. HAP’s a given, yes? No either/or about it. HAP hap-ens hap-ily
whether I know it or not, like it or not, put it in my own terms or
not, talk like an Egyptian. Or not.
 
II. Ways we talk about Hap: the common sense, the disciplines,
the traditions: context-driven, task-driven. agenda-determining:
let me count the ways.
 
III. WAYS WE TALK ABOUT ways we talk about HAP
f I could make this sound Chronicle of Hire Education worthy
& talk like a metaphysician, I would try and convince you all
that right here could be our CORE PROGRAM: the heart 
of our Liberal Art (not to be confused, etc. with majors,
pre-professionalism etc & talk like that..)
 
Because developing WAYS WE TALK ABOUT  the ways-
we-talk-about What’s Actually Happening  is the only way
I know  that we get savvy,  (smart and smarter) about the
nature of  the Ways We Talk about What’s Actually
HAP happening
 
And that’s the Liberal Art as opposed to the liberal arts.
A local food back agenda as opposed to Global 
Positioning in a whirl of turbulence and turmoil. 
 
Need we argue?  I wish we could: in the pursuit of knowing
and intellectual/affective freedom.
 
xxxooo, Sam