Purdue News
Purdue News
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December 19, 1999 Beering reminds graduates of education's role in societyWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue President Steven C. Beering today (Sunday 12/19) reminded new graduates that an educated people preserves democracy and civilization. When the United States government was formed in 1787, not all were convinced a democracy was the best. Alexander Hamilton believed that a small group of benevolent leaders was needed. Hamilton felt citizenry did not have the knowledge or wisdom necessary, Beering said. "(Thomas) Jefferson replied as follows: 'If we think the people are not wise enough to exercise power with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take power from them but to improve their discretion through education. We must preach a crusade against ignorance, for if a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never can be.' "Much later in his life, Jefferson would demonstrate further his commitment to this ideal by establishing the University of Virginia, which became the precursor of the great public institutions of higher learning in our country and Purdue is one of them. "This idea that a nation's welfare is linked to the education of its citizens is one of the pillars upon which America's greatness is built, but the concept did not originate with Jefferson. In deed it goes back to Plato and Aristotle made an eloquent case for this very same notion more than 2,000 years earlier. But this country has adopted and refined the concept in a unique way." Beering noted that education helps preserve not only a democracy, but society. "Two of my favorite historians, Will and Ariel Durant, wrote in 1968 a deeply insightful, collection of essays entitled "The Lessons of History." In the chapter called "Is Progress Real?" states the following: "If education is the transmission of civilization, we are unquestionably progressing. Civilization is not inherited. It has to be learned and earned by each generation anew. If the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would surely die, and we would again be savages. So our finest contemporary achievement is our unprecedented expenditure of wealth and toil in the provision of higher education for all. "Consider education not as the painful accumulation of facts and dates and reigns, nor merely the necessary preparation of the individual to earn his keep in the world, but as the transmission of our mental, moral, technical and aesthetic heritage as fully as possible to as many as possible for the enlargement of our understanding, control, embellishment and the enjoyment of life." "It would be difficult to improve upon the Durants' summation of the many and varied outcomes of education. In America, the ideal they describe blossomed with the establishment of the land-grant colleges after the Civil War. These institutions were revolutionary because they challenged the status quo which held that higher education was reserved for the male half of an elite class. By offering the opportunity for a university degree to anyone with the ability and motivation to earn it, these institutions unleashed an enormous reserve of human capital. "Today's graduates represent the next generation of that great energy source. You are fortunate in that they will receive, in just a few minutes, a Purdue degree that is deeply respected and highly valuable not just in America, but throughout the marketplace of the world. "The process of earning that degree has prepared you not just for today's world of unprecedented prosperity, but for the future. You will be able to cope with that dynamic situation and even help to direct it because you have developed an uncommon combination of intellectual skills and work habits. These are attributes that identify Purdue graduates in the work place -- whether it be private industry, government service or education -- and in life. "Are you ready for the next step? I think you are. You are as ready as a great university can make you. This is a time of the year when we celebrate our many blessings. Surely, the greatest blessing of all is the freedom education gives you to shape your own future and the power it gives you to help create a better world. It is time now to exercise that freedom and use that power." Approximately 2,900 students were eligible to participate in two commencement ceremonies conducted today in Elliott Hall of Music. Writer: J. Michael Willis, (765) 494-0371; mwillis@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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