Talking About My Generation

            Anecdotal Evidence
 
Critical Thinking: shibboleth of liberal arts since
the mid-90’s  to justify our love and steady rise in
tuition.
 
I got educated before Critical Thinking,  Attention
Deficit, & Restless Legs Syndrome were invented.
 
New Criticism was  hue & cry.Cleanthe  Brookes
advised  usto look over the 10  questions on  his
final exam. 
 
      “Write on any 2 or 3 or 4
          of  them,“ he urged.  
 
There was no such a thing as  secondhand smoke
but classrooms were full of it, & some of our
evening seminars like our current MFA  readings
had wine available to make things more tolerable.
 
Henri Peyre told us that existence  preceded essence,
and marriage was  “bad faith” seeing as each  partner
expected validation  from the other.
 
            Bind leading the bind.
 
Highlight of my first year learning experience sitting
between Jack Heinz & Jock Pillsbury in Sheffield
Sterling Strathcona  Hall:  I called out  Karl Barth, 
when the professor stumbled over who-it-was
said “The Theological  Circle.”
 
In the first row under  R.S. Brumbraugh’s lectern
I  made a commitment to philosophy and decided
All Philosophical (if not critical) Thinking Forever
is divided between Plato & Aristotle and varieties
of those 2 experiences.  Need we argue?
 
I learned “homeostasis” in my  non-lab biology
class (fulfilling my science requirement) and
 “juxtaposition” from History of Art where our
first assignment was to go down town, observe,
and write a  paper on some  “negative space.”
 
Global Citizenship had no cache at that point in time
and information was a matter of Stand & Deliver.

Content uber alles.

Some claimed any one could get a decent education
by close- reading the New York Times every day. 
Others, fearless; enrolled in Daily Themes.