The Zen of Education
WRITTEN BY ANDREW ABBOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN DRY
Welcome to the University of Chicago.” Of the dozens of persons who will say that to you during orientation week, I am the only one who will keep on talking for another 60 minutes after saying it. I imagine that you have heard few such orations before and that you will hear few hereafter. A full-length, formal talk on a set topic is a rather 19th-century kind of thing to do. Even at Chicago, this is the sole such oration you will get. You will be glad to know that when you graduate four years hence, the speaker is asked to speak for exactly thirteen and one-half minutes.
It’s no easier for me. This is only the third or fourth such oration that I’ve given in my life. And you’re not an easy audience. You’re preoccupied with new roommates, placement tests, and “Chicago Life meetings” numbers one through five. Your minds are weary with the endless junk we’ve given you to read. Your bodies are aglow with adrenaline, serotonin, and endorphins, not to mention the more urgent excitements of estrogen and testosterone. Some of you are eager to hear what I have to say. Some of you can’t wait till it’s over. Some of you are watching the noisy dude whisper loudly two rows in front of you. Some of you are sensing the aspiration and grandeur expressed by this Gothic building. Some of you are thinking that I, the speaker, have a very big nose. In short, you’re a diverse lot and I’m a beginning orator and we have an hour together to think about the aims of education. Let’s do it.
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