David Brooks wrote a column in the New York Times Op-Ed page on 8 November that all COW students should read. In the first place, it’s optimistic about your futures. In the second place, it offers college students some strategies for success that seem hard to argue with. The formula: (a) Be creative, (b) Learn how to network with other creative people, (c) Acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to make your connections and networks global.
To achieve the latter, you will need to spend a significant amount of time in a foreign country or, better yet, countries (Study Abroad), learn to speak at least one foreign language fluently (which means at least three years of language study and Study Abroad), gain an in-depth knowledge of the culture or cultures that you are interested in by taking courses that stress the richness and singularity of those cultures (courses in history, literature, anthropology, religion, etc.). Overarching frameworks provided by social science disciplines may be useful to some of you.
Networking is a skill that you build upon every time you form a study circle, take the time and effort to consult with a faculty member (especially one who is not officially your teacher or advisor), consult on IS or another project with experts outside the College, make appointments to speak with people who have careers in which you are interested, play a leadership role on a team, in a campus organization or in student government. Better yet play a role in a national or international organization.
Learning to be creative is a bit more complicated. Any ideas?
Here are a few selections from the piece. The first imagines the trajectory of a creative student from a College like COW.
Howard Gardner of Harvard once put together a composite picture of the extraordinarily creative person: She comes from a little place somewhat removed from the center of power and influence. As an adolescent, she feels herself outgrowing her own small circle. She moves to a metropolis and finds a group of people who share her passions and interests. She gets involved with a team to create something amazing.
Then, at some point, she finds her own problem, which is related to and yet different from the problems that concern others in her group. She breaks off and struggles and finally emerges with some new thing. She brings it back to her circle. It is tested, refined and improved.
Brooks’s afterthought is really his main point: “creativity is not a solitary process. It happens within networks. It happens when talented people get together, when idea systems and mentalities merge.”
Brooks is a great popularizer of other peoples’ ideas. He concludes by summarizing the conclusions of an article by a high-ranking US Diplomat, Ann-Marie Slaughter. It appeared in the journal Foreign Affairs last year:
Slaughter’s essay was titled “America’s Edge.” That is apt. Americans are now in a depressed state of mind. As China and India rise, nearly two-thirds of Americans believe their nation is in decline.
In fact, the U.S. is well situated to be the crossroads nation. It is well situated to be the center of global networks and to nurture the right kinds of networks. Building that America means doing everything possible to thicken connections: finance research to attract scientists; improve infrastructure to ease travel; fix immigration to funnel talent; reform taxes to attract superstars; make study abroad a rite of passage for college students; take advantage of the millions of veterans who have served overseas.
The nation with the thickest and most expansive networks will define the age. There’s no reason to be pessimistic about that.
In short, students should make an effort to learn how to network and how to make those networks global.