“Education in the Interrogative Mode”

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>Here is a link to the Spring 2006 Convocation Address by James Chandler</p>

<p><a href="http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/06/060610.chandler-transcript.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/06/060610.chandler-transcript.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The first paragraph is UChicago:</p>

<p>"You happy graduates, along with your families and friends, have my heartiest congratulations. Of course, you will have been here long enough by now to sense that the institution that will be conferring your degree today is a little peculiar. It is often said in these precincts that this University is distinguished from most others because it has so powerful an idea of itself. I once thought this sort of talk was just the stuff of local legend, but I’ve learned better since. It is in fact a view of the place that is widely shared in higher education, well beyond these walls. But just what is the idea of the University of Chicago?"</p>

2

<p>I don't think I've heard the Idea of Chicago so well articulated before. That was a great speech. The student speeches were very good, too.</p>

<p>Mayor Bloomberg's was adequate, if a little boilerplate. You can read that one [url=<a href="http://www.nyc.gov/portal/index.jsp?epi_menuItemID=c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0&epi_menuID=13ecbf46556241d3daf2f1c701c789a0&epi_baseMenuID=27579af732d48f86a62fa24601c789a0&pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2006a%2Fpr194-06.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://www.nyc.gov/portal/index.jsp?epi_menuItemID=c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0&epi_menuID=13ecbf46556241d3daf2f1c701c789a0&epi_baseMenuID=27579af732d48f86a62fa24601c789a0&pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2006a%2Fpr194-06.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1]here[/url&lt;/a&gt;]. The first half was obviously constructed from bullet points about the city of Chicago and the University. There were audible groans at some of the comments, and everyone with whom I spoke afterwards complained about how low-level it was, especially compared to the speeches that came before. The second half was better -- there were a handful of moments when people broke into spontaneous applause -- but the way in which he tried to weave the ideas articulated in Chandler's speech with the political issues raised were just really, really awkward. He just seemed to underestimate his audience. Oops!</p>