The GrinucIISearlet and Black, September 26.1!t75-p.5

3
9 0563: 41151029641}:
Dewar’s . . . . pronounced do—ers

liy .ienrcy Miller
lwas perusing an old copy of the
Gi-iiincli Magazine the other day
and I happened upon my lavorite
ieature‘the “Profiles ” This is
usually an inrdepth look at a
professor and a student who is
litc trequcnlly associated uith
the prof in one way or another. I
had often wondered why the
“Profiles” teaturod only present
students, an equally clever idea, it
*ecmcd to me, would be to add a
proﬁle oi a recent graduate iiho
had been associated with the ‘prof»
inrprofile,’ This would offer an
opportunity to examine the clfect
that Grinnell in general, and that
proi in particular, had had on the
ex»sludent in his-her postrGrinnell
career.
Then i received the disquieting
news that the Magazine was
miscontinuing its “Profiles”
Feature due to space limitations.
How foolish, l thought, when with
the use of a different format there
' would be no problem whatsoever
th space. The format I had in
mind was the format used by the
Dcwar‘s Scotch people in their
“Profiles" ads; indeed, why not let
ite Dewar‘s people write the
drinncll profilesithe advertising
revenue could be used to buy more
paper for more space.
with this in mind, i wish to
present the prototype for the new
“Profiles” feature in the Grinnell
Magazine, featuring a completely
hypothetical prof and an equally
hypothetical recent graduate who
was hypothetically associated with
the hypothetical prof during his
‘stay here, and whose post»Grinnell
in has been greatly inﬂuenced by
rat hypothetical association:

DONALD A. DUNALDSMYTIIE

HOME‘ Grinnell, Iowa

AGE: 41

PROFESSION: Professor of British History and Humanities

HOBBIES: Darts, opera, drinking stout, impersonating
Hanoverian royalty

MOST MEMORABLE BOOK: Nixon’s Six Crises

LAST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Building a replica of Stonehenge in
his backyard with Lego blocks and Lincoln Logs.

QUOTE: “Mr. Miller, don’t. you think it's a bit rash to dismiss the
works of Hume as ‘the inane meandering: of a scumsucking
prottrFascisl‘l' ”

PROFILE: Intense interest in academic matters combined with a
light tongue-in-cheek teaching approach gives him respect,
money, and the ability to aid his students in achieving both in
their postrGrinnellcareers

SCOTCH: Dewar‘s White Label

DAVID/L “NICK" [ALOCIN

HOME: Minneapolis. Minnesota

AGE: 22

PROFESSION: Sanitation engineer

HOBBIES: Separating mind trom body. classical krummhorn,
decoupage

MOST MEMORABLE BOOK: Kant's Proleg‘omelm to Any Future
Methaphysies

LAST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Successful application of industrial
strength Janitor-in-a-Drum to a wall in order to remove remr
nants of a double cheese pizza.

QUOTE: “I am forced to side with Voltairein his famous argument
with Rousseau, due in part to Rousseau's comparative naivele
in epistemological matters, Where's my mop?"

PRQF‘ILE: A thorough understanding of methaphysics and a
hearty mistrust of British empiricism give him the ability to
rationalize away his postrGrinnell meniality.

SCOTCH' Can't afford any.

‘One more time with feeling . . .

‘ Ms

Will Collins

“We should not pretend to un-
derstand the World only by the
intellect; we apprehend it just as
much by feeling. Therefore the
judgment of the intellect is, at best,
only thehalfoftruth, and must, it it
be honest, also come to an unr
derstanding of its lnadequacy."7
Carl Gustay Jung tm lthll from
“Psychological Types

in beginning, 1 ireely admit the
inaccuraciesmherentinthetypeoi
generalizations which I am about
to make, Nonetheless, I feel
compelled to comment on a
phenomena which is tragically
common among the Grinnell

College population

0n the whole, Grinnell students
are unquestionably very inc
telligcnt. Most Grinnell students
did very well, academically at
least, in secondary school.
Classroom hurdles were cleared
with exceptional agility and grace
by the future Grinnell students,
and few of their classmates were
able to compete with them for the
attention and plaudits of their adult
instructors. And as high schools
are as guilty as colleges of pedr
tiling the tenacious, durable, and
dusly lie that grades and books are
the same thing as an education, the
future Grinnell students learned
quickly to rely upon their
propensity for academic
acrobatics in order to become
“successful." For [his they were
rewarded, perhaps by being ad.
mitted to Grinnell.

Strong efforts are made at
Grinnell to instill in a student some
notion that an Education has
somewhere beyond mere grades
and books. but these efforts are
nearly negated by the intense
competition It) get lnlo graduate
schools, and by institutional
systems which contradict [he idea
of a liberal arts education. 50 the
gradeseducalion syndrome

continues. and Grinnell students
are still encouraged to think that
an intellect is the only requirement
for happiness and success.

This sort of dependence upon
intellectual facilities is not only
stilling, it is devastating to the
individual and the community. We
find ourselves in a situation in
which, in order to feel somewhat
secure, we ieel we must rely
almost solely on the part ol our
person in which we have some
confidencewui‘ intellect. We’re
smart, and What’s worse, we know
it

What we don't know will hurt us.
We don ’t know the strength oi those
areas or our being which are not
intellectual. We have much less
confidence in our spiritual,
emotional. and social abilities than
we have in our intellectual abilities
because we were given little ins
centive to explorc other sources of
potential strength. confidence, and
security,

We ‘find ourselves with
prodigious knowledge, but without
the spiritual, emotional, social,
and moral awareness which
tempers more knowledge into
wisdom. Wisdom docs certainly
seem in short supply on the
Grinnell campus,

More succinctly, iar too many, it
not most, members of the Grii.nell
community find themselves
lacking many of the basic social
skills that members of a less ”1'
lellectually orientated community
might have. i think we can be
accurately characterized an
aculely insecure coinmur. y,
lacking the ability to deal with
each other in it way that might
relieve us ot insecurities. lacking
the ability to “apprehend the world
by feeling.” and therefore taking
timid refuge in the one thing with
which we are Secure. our in
teiiects. We are lonely. We have
allowed Grinnell to become a place
which hinders. rather llian sup
ports, our growth and maturation.

The solution to our quandry is
really quite simple If we can just
admit that we are insecure, and
realize that insecurity 15 not a
shamciui thing, then we will no
longer need to chase each other
into our tiny towers of ivory, and
we can then be about the business
of becoming all that we can
become.

 

