Many of the greatest heroes in national memory are those men and women who have possessed courage, exceptional vision, commitment to service and the gift of articulate expression.
College President James Freedman's collection of intimate, autobiographical essays in his book "Idealism and Liberal Education" shows him to be one such, albeit lesser recognized, "hero."
Freedman is an eloquent champion of liberal education, and his confidence in reason, intellect, and personal integrity is rare and refreshing.
The 22 essays of his stunning first book are loosely unified by his personal conviction that the cultivation of character and intellect are both indispensable tools in confronting life's challenges, and as a rich ends in themselves.
In his essay "Becoming an Educator," Freedman expounds on the theme which ties together his writings and pervades the wealth of his personal experiences.
Macaulay's "Essay on Johnson" (1856), an 18th century lexicographer and critic, spoke to him with a wisdom whose influence was indelible.
Freedman writes, "The memory of that essay has stayed with me ever since, as has the key sentence: 'But the force of his mind overcame every impediment.' "
Freedman writes that, although attempts to reduce life's complexity to a single theme are tempting but flawed by their simplicity, the essence of his own life is fathomable.
He writes, "For me, the central theme has been love of learning and reading, together with, from an early age, the profound desire to become a scholar and a teacher. Almost everything that I have sought to achieve, personally and professionally, derives from that theme."
The sincerity of Freeman's conviction that education gives direction and significance to one's life permeates all of his writings. Readers cannot help but be inspired to hear of the honestly-rendered recollections of the challenges which confronted Freedman as an undergraduate, law school student, university and college president and cancer survivor.
One imagines that, as a scholar and bibliophile, Freedman drew sustenance and literally nourished himself by devouring works of literature, history, and philosophy which armed him with the insight and perspicacity of countless heads of state, scholars and fictional characters.
Inspired by heroes and heroines such as Thurgood Marshall, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Vaclav Havel, Martin Luther King, Jr., George F. Kennan, Hugo L. Black, Harry S Truman, George Orwell and Edmund Wilson, Freedman seeks to inspire as well.
He writes, "I have great faith in today's undergraduates. I do not share the conventional wisdom that today's generation of students lacks idealism and seeks only pre-vocational education, in the heady-pursuit of material success." He continued, "Perhaps such pessimism has always been present."
Freedman recalls Henry Adam's pessimism on the occasion of his own commencement in 1858.
"...Today's undergraduates possess an untapped capacity for idealism and altruism, for which our society does not provide adequate outlets. They are not so much indifferent to idealism as uninspired by their elders, not so much misled in their values as left to flounder on their own."
Freedman sees his role at the College as one of providing students with "a sense of idealism, a sense of personal destiny, a sense that service counts in meeting the daunting tasks that confront us."
The ultimate test of a liberal education appears to be the 'transforming power' of the educational process. Herein lies the challenge, Freedman says.
"... Students should feel that they have been exposed to an educational process of such transcending reach and transforming power that they have been challenged in every segment of their being."
"They should be able to say: 'I am today a different person -- a person more deeply aware of ambiguity, beauty, complexity, suffering, and truth than I was when I entered. My liberal education has changed me utterly.' "
"Idealism and Liberal Education" is articulate, thoughtful -- and perhaps most highly -- genuinely inspiring. Few such contemporary works achieve their purpose with such clarity of expression and insight.
