Designing Minds

In an essay called “ Designing Minds”, educator and catalyst David Orr suggests that college is a time for designing minds. Students come to college not just to read a lot of books and pass the tests, but to design their own minds. College students learn a lot of stuff, but they also learn habits of mind—patterns of questioning, analysis, appreciation and synthesis—that will serve them for years to come. They also learn virtues—honesty, justice, courage, persistence, consideration (or attentiveness), and humility. When students pursue their researches, we expect them to be courageous, doing justice to the truth wherever it leads. We expect them to be persistent, and to consider a variety of interpretations before settling on one. In the sciences and social sciences (and elsewhere), we expect curious questioners to value careful questioning and observation, precision and straightforward presentation. In the humanities and the fine arts (and elsewhere), we expect empathy and consideration, and attentiveness to details. We count on good scholars to practice humility, subordinating their own ideas and assumptions to the truths they discover. And we expect scholars to be charitable to one another, correcting errors in a spirit of collective endeavor. Starting in September, you get to design your own mind by practicing the skills and virtues of college life. Will you be hopeful or cynical, compassionate or selfish, stupid or intelligent, clever or wise, loving or indifferent, conservative or liberal or both? Will you be mindful or not? You get to decide, and the college gets to help.