School Time

In reading the three pieces assigned for Wednesday, I came to the conclusion that St. Olaf seems to embrace an educative philosophy most akin to Dewey's quote on democracy.  AsBlanche Brick quotes in her , "Changing Concepts of Equal Educational Opportunity,“Democracy is a way of . . . life controlled not
merely by faith in human nature in general but by faith in the capacity of human beings for intelligent judgment and action if proper conditions are furnished.”(Dewey 1955, 311).   In my opinion, Aune highlights these same ideas in her essay, "Both sides of the Hyphen,"  in which she writes, "St. Olaf was not simply a transplantation of what had been known in Norway...based on the study of classical languages...designed for the few...rather it explicitly emphasized the egalitarian development of moral character within the context of a Christian view of life."  From its earliest days, St. Olaf had a democratic sense of education.  While the articles did not indicate whether the school was integrated in terms of race from its founding, it did allow both men and women to attend, which was not common in that time period.  Similarly, it rejected the idea of the natural aristocracy and sought to cultivate the possibility of knowledge within different types of people, many of whom came from farming families.   The school also combined the ideas of faith in human nature and faith in human intelligence that Dewey attributed to democracy, seeking, amid criticism from Augsburg, that they were sacrificing faith at the expense of knowledge.   Instead, the idea of the whole person, knowledge and the arts included, being related to faith was nourished.  A quote which struck me was from Rolvaag, who said, "Norwegians...are deeply rooted to a place while possessing at the same time a restless desire for adventure.  They have a love of home and of the memories and traditions that belong to it.  They value equality and hospitality.  They have a keen desire for knowledge and a particular feeling for art and beauty.  they also possess a deep religious feeling manifested in a personal relationship to God.  Most important...is the love of freedom." Using his vision of what it means to be a Norwegian, St. Olaf College, in my opinion, should not have been criticized so heavily in its early days.  Immediately, they sought to uphold these very ideas central to the Norwegian spirit-perhaps not specific doctrines and customs as much throughout the years, but certainly the spirit of hominess, beauty, God, and freedom.  In many ways, this is very American- not only Norwegian.  A love of the land, a welcoming of others, and freedom are concepts one thinks of often when thinking of America, and to bring that together with Norwegian heritage makes perfect sense for a college founded on Lutheran-Norwegian roots.   Even today, while some may say that the Lutheran-Norwegian roots of St. Olaf mean little, I see Rolvaag's quote as completely pervasive on campus.  There is an attachment to this campus as an isolated, special place that continues (as we wrote about in our first semester Olaf papers).  Art and Beauty hold a large place in St. Olaf culture, with all of our musical ensembles and Christmas Festival.  People are gosh-darn friendly and hospitable, on the whole.  And while the college may be more diverse than in 1875 in terms of heritage and religion, there is still an embrace of both, though I would say more welcoming of different backgrounds and religions, as seen with different Ethnic weeks we have and what I perceive as a general religious tolerance on campus for different religious beliefs.   Overall, I think St. Olaf is doing a pretty good job of living up to its founding principles, while transitioning and evolving to satisfy modern times.