The New Yorker Education Issue
The September 4 issue of The New Yorker is designated the Education Issue. It has articles on
* The lacrosse controversy at Duke University
* Experimental education at Deep Springs College
* Improving school lunches in Berkeley
* Music education in schools
* Intrinsic capabilities of infant brains
* Bringing a New England boarding school to the Middle East
* A sketchbook by the inimitable Roz Chast, "What I Learned"
There's much in each of these articles about the intersections of higher education, teaching and discovery, and broader social issues - all of the components of public engagement. To give just one example: In Learning the Score: Why Brahms belongs in the classroom by Alex Ross (pp. 82-88) there's an eloquent passage (p. 88) about the role of the arts in a democracy. It cites a book by Maxine Greene, author of Releasing the Imagination:
"She believes that children can gain deeper understanding of the surrounding world by looking at it from the peculiar vantage point of a work of art. She writes, 'To tap into imagination is to become able to break with what is supposedly fixed and finished, objectively and independently real.' Children learn to notice surprising details that undermine a popular stereotype; they grow tolerant of difference, attuned to idiosyncrasy. They also can experience a shock of perception that shows them alternative possibilities within their own lives..."