Actually, this is totally legal (and has nothing to do with chess). Since I am paying for my TimesSelect subscription, I thought I would pass along today's highlights. Below, a summary of David Brooks' checklist for a good college education (and some personal comments).
"1. Read Reinhold Niebuhr. Religion is a crucial driving force of this century, and Niebuhr is the wisest guide. Alan Wolfe of Boston College notes, if everyone read Niebuhr, "The devout would learn that public piety corrupts private faith and that faith must play a prophetic role in society. The atheists would learn that some people who believe in God are really, really smart." [Thank you, Dr. Gibson! Check! -ed]
2. Read Plato's "Gorgias." It teaches that the worldly honors that one may win by being a good speaker ... can all too easily erode one's devotion to truth — a devotion that is critical to our integrity as persons. [Hmmm. I don't remember Dr. Heil assigning this one in Philosophy, and my speech comm classes on rhetoric never included this. -ed]
3. Take a course on ancient Greece. "No habit is so important to acquire," Aristotle wrote, as the ability "to delight in fine characters and noble actions." [Does working in the Classics Dept. count? -ed]
4. Learn a foreign language. [Claro que si!-ed]
5. Spend a year abroad. Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland says, "All evidence suggests this, more than any other, is a transforming experience for students that lasts a lifetime." [Ok, so a semester in DC is not really "abroad", but it was a transforming experience.-ed]
6. Take a course in neuroscience. In the next 50 years, half the explanations you hear for human behavior are going to involve brain structure and function. You've got to know which are serious and which are cockamamie.[Wow. I don't think Trinity even offered a class like that. And if they did, it was upper division for pre-med people. -ed]
7. Take statistics. Later in life...it's handy to know what a standard deviation is. [Check. But you know what they say...there's lies, damn lies, and then there's statistics. -ed]
8. Forget about your career for once in your life." [Um, I think I've got this one covered. -ed]
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I combined 3 and 4, and also did 6--Fundamentals of Cognition. But the science is changing so fast that the knowledge I gained there only helps me edit out the most cockamamie new theories.
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