It is a time of caps, gowns, and tassel turning as children, youth, and adults graduate from everything from preschools to institutions of higher education. Graduation is a time of reflection and hopeful envisioning. The conferring of a degree acknowledges one's learning in classes from English to theater to math. Stepping off the graduation stage signifies the transition beyond the classroom. Those topics and ideas must now be applied -- to life itself.
Courses, regardless of topic, can teach us about life. Let's take my field of mathematics as an example, because it is the context I know best. Can everyone learn about life from a math class? Of course: It enables us balance our checkbooks. But how can math teach us about living life itself?
Here is my list of the top 10 things that can be learned from the mathematical classroom -- whether you like the topic or not!
- Do your homework! If you plan on being ready only when it counts, then when it counts, you won't be ready.
Classes can open the doors of insight on the world and on yourself. Children learn to read, giving them intellectual passports to lands of fiction and nonfiction. In other courses, students learn the complexities of interdependent economic systems or techniques in sculpting wood or metal. Each classroom can offer insights on life, and life itself can be a classroom where we learn about the world and ourselves. There is always more to be learned and more frontiers to apply what you already know.
This post was adapted from a commencement address I gave at Davidson Day School on Friday, May 25, 2012.