On My 21st our wonderful eldest granddaughter,
Sophia Elizabeth Fleming-Benite, received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from
the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Her field of concentration was Cognitive Science. As they did not pass out bumper
stickers, I have to do my bragging on-line. Her professors had noted her extraordinary achievement by
awarding her departmental honors in that subject, and of course she was the
recipient of “general university honors” in recognition of a high grade-point
average as well. I say “of course”
not because this outcome was foreordained or easily achieved, but because I had
been the intermittent eye-witness to the energy, determination, and luminous
intelligence with which she had pursued her work of the last four years.
documentary evidence from photographer Cora Louise
The
root of the word “graduation” is the Latin gradus,
a step or a ladder-rung, and graduating from college, though a very important
step, has had steps before it and will have steps after it. Though born in California Sophia was
destined by parental fate to be a Gotham rather than a Valley Girl. That same convenient fate compelled her
to spend her four high school years in Paris, where she pursued and obtained
her international baccalaureate. As for future steps, we share an
awareness that the economic situation in our country is far from robust, even
for highly qualified graduates. Hence we are particularly pleased
(though not particularly surprised), that Sophia landed a challenging job in a
rather glitzy cybernetic field in which she will apply in imaginative but practical
terms some of her theoretical training in brain science.
The
world is full of bloggers, true, but how many of them can (like your bloguiste) claim semi-professional
expertise on issues of academic ritual?
I was for seventeen years the Chief Marshal for University Convocations
at Princeton, where pomp is matched only by ceremony and spit is ever redeemed
by polish. It would be invidious
of me to make adversarial comparisons among distinguished American
universities; so I must let the facts speak for themselves. The Hopkins Commencement ceremony was
held in the football stadium during three hours of determined, cool
drizzle. We were midway up the
bleachers on the opponents’ forty-yard line. This might have been enough to tax the average parental
patience even without the president’s superfluous observation that he and the
other big shots were seated snug on a covered stage.
The
Commencement speaker was one of the honorary degree recipients, Edwin E.
Catmull, the President of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. Dr. Catmull is the winner of no fewer
than five Academy Awards, as well as the much-lauded author of a highly
successful business book entitled Creativity,
Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. His theme was once again “Creativity”
and, protected by an overhanging arch that shielded him from the precipitation,
he pursued it at some length. The
young no doubt are more familiar with the intricacies of computer-generated
animation than am I. Perhaps they
also follow with greater attention than I the rise and fall of start-up empires
and the complex rhythms of Silicon Valley mergers and acquisitions. It was a little hard for me to
concentrate. The forces that were
standing in my way were neither unseen nor unfelt. I was distracted by the slowly dawning realization that the
left-side fringe of my suit jacket was gradually becoming soaked and heavy as
it sponged up the water first deflected by my plastic surcoat and the funneled
by it onto my bleacher seat. I
wanted Up but seemed temporarily
trapped in Monsters University.
Yet
like everyone else in that large transparent-ponchoed crowd our pride in, and
happiness for, our graduate conquered
all physical discomfort. The marathon
aspect of the Hopkins graduation is an inevitable result of one of its nicer
features: every single graduate is called out by name. This is done quite briskly, reducing the
statutory envelope of fame from fifteen minutes to something closer to 1.5
seconds; but that it is done at all for such a large group is remarkable. The graduates sprint across the stage as
summoned, their academic perp-walks captured by camera and largely magnified on
twin Jumbotrons flanking the presidential platform. Among their many other advantages, Johns Hopkins graduates
thus enjoy credentials confirmable by Instant Replay.
A distant mirror: Sophia scores on the Jumbotron
Johns Hopkins is in Baltimore. Baltimore is a complex and variegated city. It has serious problems involving poverty and race. Some of its chronic pathologies are on permanent local display, but this year they claimed national attention at the end of April when some serious rioting and looting accompanied community protests. Johns Hopkins is an elite, highly selective, expensive educational institution. Like other such institutions it is brim-full of life’s winners. A certain sense of irony might have hovered over its Commencement jubilations had some obvious contrasts or contradictions not been brought to mind.
But
they were, and thoughtfully, as was
appropriate for a great center of learning. University President Ronald Daniels made them the principal
substance of his remarks. It
happened, furthermore, that Representative Elijah Cummings, one of the leading members
of Congress, and certainly one of the most eloquent, was another among those
receiving honorary degrees. He,
too, made a brief but powerful speech.
And while speeches do not solve problems, they may help inspire
dedicated people to try to solve them.
And we saw a lot of dedicated people in that football stadium. Our own lovely granddaughter was
but one of many thousands of graduates throughout our land who, we have sound
reason to hope, will put their fine educations to the work of leaving our
troubled world a bit better than they found it.
The Graduate with proud grandparents
