Dominican College of San Rafael - Firebrand Yearbook (San Rafael, CA)

Page 17 text:

The humanist Douglas Bush remarked in a recent essay that HAdl'lIll1lStl'3l.Ol'S are commonly said to prize the solid and tangible virtues of the natural and social sciences and to look upon the humanities as a nice luxury for the carriage trade. He argues that the humanities are not luxury, but a practical necessity if men and women are to become fully human.', Bush adds that the humani- ties suffer since one cannot show by a graph their positive influence on a student, because 'tthe experience of litera- ture is an individual experience, and nothing that is really important can be measured. Each of us in the senior class has been given the ex- perience of literature. In an age where the major com- plaints against education have been that it is too umech- anizedw and loo ucomputerized, we have been given small classes and personal attention. In a World fighting to retain the concept ofthe individual, we have been treat- cd as individual students. It strikes me as sad that so many small liberal arts colleges are being forced to fight lor their existence when in many instances students are searching for exactly the education these colleges offer. All people are not the sameg likewise all colleges are not the same. Dominican is not Berkeley, nor does it try to be. Berkeley has things Dominican does not-that is an oft-repeated point. But what is not so repeated-Domini can has things Berkeley does not. And this is what must be realized. ,lust because our education is concentrated on something old-the thoughts, writings, music, art, and history of thousands of years-does not mean we are re- ceiving an old-fashioned, and 'tunrealistic'l education.

Page 16 text:

Hfieal Life -these are Tolkien's key words. Just what is real?, he is asking. Is an automobile any more real than an elm-tree? ls something real just because it is ugly, just because it is new? It has been inferred by some that we at a small women's college are leading a fairy-tale life, a life which is, in today's jargon, Mont of itf' In an age when San Francisco State and Cal are surrounded by pickets and demonstrators and violence, Dominican is surrounded by trees, and grass, and peace. But are pick- ets any more real than trees? Is violence any more real than peace? The search for reality goes yet deeper-into education itself. The humanities too are accused of being irrelevant and passe, while the social and natural sciences, it is said, equip us to cope with society. This utilitarian philosophy is concomitant with the philosophy of those who find it necessary to be surrounded by all the udiscoveries', ofthe modern world in order to lead a relevant life. And yet, why should more emphasis be placed on the writings of todayls psychologists and social scientists than on the words of Homer and Aristotle? Universality is an im- portant Word to the argument for the humanities. If edu- cation is taken to be the search for truth and for the im- provement of man land if it is not taken this way it is because it has in the past years been forced into a very mechanical patternj , it seems to make sense that we profit from what other men have said on tmth and humanity, and build on what they have said, rather than throw it out in favor of only that which is written in our colloquial tongue, referring only to our individual, idiosyncratic qualities. I0

Page 18 text:

In Jonathan Swift's Cullivefs Travels, Gulliver visits the city of Lagado, which is greatly influenced hy an Academy of Projectors. Gulliver is surprised to find the houses and the people in rather ragged conditions. It is explained to him that the uPI'0j6Cll01'S7, spend all their time developing Knew schemes for building, planting, etc., and at the same time disregard past achievements, assured that what is new is best, seeking novelty for the sake of novelty. The one man, Count lVlunodi, who has held out against the new methods and continued to rely on tradition, is the one man whose land and home retain prosperity and beauty. Dominican College is not a 'cpoor ohsolete thing, in- substantial dream of an escapistf' Rather it is a real place, full of people like Count Munodi-people who build on the old, adding what is new to the hest ofthe old, and thus steadily progressing from a solid foundation. Which is more real-the writings of men which have survived the ages, or the latest book analyzing our c'sick society? Which is more real-a picket shouting for free- dom, demanding that all else be destroyed until this free- dom is giveng or a tree, which slowly, hut surely grows, quietly exercising its freedom, and quietly preserving thatfreedom? L.A..L. I2