UVM Graduation Reflections Stirring but Fractured Voices
Steven C. Rice recalls his student years at the University of Vermont from 1970 in a reflective piece. He describes idealism fading to mellowed uncertainty amid antiwar protests, debates on public education, and a sense that a college diploma may mean more than a credential.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
University of Vermont
Thomas L. Hayes
UVM
Rutland
Mr. Hayes
Bennington
Chittenden Hall
Washington, D.C
Pennsylvania Avenue
Capitol Hill
Washington
College of Education
Alexander S. Rippa
Steven C. Rice
Mt. Anthony Union High School
Rice
Burlington
Vietnam
George McGovern
South Dakota
McGovern
Richard Nixon
Abraham Maslow
B.F. Skinner
Maslow
Skinner
The
White House
Sam Ervin
Nixon
Colchester Junior High
Zachary Clemens
Willie Loman
Loman
New Mexico
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Rockies
America
Graduation Reflections On Ideals Lost In Turbulent Years
A UVM graduate recalls the late 1960s to early 1970s shift from idealism to pragmatism amid Vietnam War, Watergate, and shifting education aims. He notes disillusion with schooling, calls for humanistic reform, and urges self actualization through community, cautioning against materialism and social decay.
The form and content of American life in classrooms
The speaker argues academia overemphasizes formal degrees and conformity, turning education into packaging of centuries of knowledge. They contrast urban industrial life with the loss of virgin soil beauty, noting practicality, optimism, and a gnawing doubt as central tensions in modern meaning and change.
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