Springfield College 2010 School of Human Services Graduate Commencement Ceremony

Watch School of Human Services graduates receive their degrees at the 2010 Springfield College Graduate Commencement Ceremony. Scroll down for the photo galley.

President Flynn, Chairperson Griggs, members of the Board of Trustees, Faculty, guests. But especially let us all recognize and congratulate those to whom we pay a special tribute this morning, the 2010 graduating class.

I could not help as today approached to reminisce about my time here as a student. To see some of my former classmates now on faculty – Rick  Paar, John Habif, and my very good friend, Fran Vecchiolla, who is making significant contributions to social work education nationwide – certainly reminds me that time is not frozen in the past but is forever moving ahead.

The campus seems very different from my student days – Marsh Memorial was our library;  Admissions was housed in the Administration Building, I do not remember there being an Allied Health Sciences Center or Blake Hall; I know for sure that there was no Living Center, Graduate Village, Senior Suites, or the Townhouses.

My wife Deborah and I were married about 40 years ago in the College Chapel, that was housed in the student center, which you now call the Richard B. Flynn Campus Union; and our wedding reception was we knew as the College campgrounds, but now is known as the “East Campus.”

Change is something we must expect and this morning I would like to share with you some observations around the concept of change and its interconnectedness with the Humanics Philosophy, the underlying belief that guides Springfield College.  

Change is the essence of our individual experiences, and, if you will, one of the fundamental food elements for the human spirit.

Change transforms and alters our being – what we do, what we think, what we feel are all impacted by change.  

As a student here, a manual typewriter sat on my desk  and typing errors were commonplace as I pecked my way through many papers; corrections were made with an eraser, very gingerly trying to rub out the mistake less the paper would tear and the entire page had to be re-typed.

Recently my wife and I visited the Smithsonian Museum on American History in Washington, DC and there on display was a typewriter that looked eerily similar to my undergraduate companion.

Change led the way to the electric typewriter.

I first used an electric typewriter, an IBM selectric with interchangeable ball heads and different color typewriter ribbons, in the mid-1970s. What an incredible machine, albeit very heavy, that was leaps and bounds better then the manual typewriter.  Even so, typing errors remained plentiful but were easily corrected with white out or liquid paper.  And yes, the IBM selectric too was on display in the Smithsonian.

But change continued to alter how we worked and interacted with each other.

My hands-on introduction to a computer was in 1980, the Radio Shack TRS-80, and in 1982 I purchased my first computer, a Commodore 64 with a custom graphic & synthesizer chipset, a memory of 64 RAM, and modem. The modem allowed me to connect to the University’s mainframe computer. Typing errors were easily corrected by moving the cursor and retyping the letter, word, or symbol. And, yes, the Commodore computer and modem were in the Smithsonian as well.

And change continued to alter all spheres of our lives. The micro wave oven, cable TV, 24 hour news and sports channels, High Definition television, flat screen TVs, lap top computers, cell phones and smart phones, emails, the internet, the world wide web, and social networking. All taken for granted now but all virtually unknown only one generation ago. 

Life on the technological highway is incredible, a place where innovation is a constant in our daily lives.

In a matter of seconds you can write to and hear back from someone who lives half-way around the world. You can watch a movie on your phone or download a book to read on a small handheld device.

Former astronaut Jim Lovell recently noted in an interview that the technology of your Blackberry or smart phone has far more computing capabilities than the Apollo space capsule he circled the moon in the 1960s (Lauer, April 13, 2010).

Life on the technological highway is one of 24/7 instant, persistent, consistent, and virtually addictive communications. You get a message and a response is expected now, not later. We check for messages at all hours of the day and night, no matter where we are, least others think we may be slacking.

Responses are brief and succinct – there is no time to sit back, reflect and craft a well reasoned, thoughtful memo. We even have created a new language for brevity in the message using truncated words, specific letters or symbols to communicate our thoughts.

There is a general notion that quickness and conciseness in a response equates to excellence in work. Being late in responding, maybe waiting a day or two to answer an email, is seen as being aloof, not interested, or an indirect message that “your suggestion is a bad idea.” I find it commonplace to get a second, “reminder”, email within 24 hours of the first message being sent.

Writing in his recent work,  Rewired (Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn), Dr. Larry Rosen, calls today’s teens the “I” generation reflecting their lives surrounded by the “I” world – Ipod, Iphone, Wi-Fi, and the Internet. Rosen writes that, and I quote, (they are) quote, “are immersed in a media diet…. always connected in one way or another…with TV on, Ipod earbuds firmly implanted in their ears, laptop showing one window with a school report open beside a browser window open to Facebook, several instant messaging alerts flashing at the bottom of the screen, and (the) phone on the desk vibrating with texts messages waiting to be answered” (Rosen pp. 2-3).

 Rosen goes on to say that they are multi-taskers, social networkers, electronic communicators, who prefer either texting or chatting on-line rather than talking with a friend face-to-face (Rosen, p. 2).

The Pew Research Center this past April reported that 72% of all teens use text messaging with half of teens sending 50 or more text messages a day and one in three sending more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month (Lenhart, 2010).

And this past January, the Kaiser Family Foundation described American youth spending on average 7 ½ hours each day using some form of electronic or technological device.  But because they are multi-tasking, as Rosen notes, they actually pack 10 hours and 45 worth of content into that 7 ½ hours (Rideout, V; Foehr, U; and Roberts, D., p. 2). 

This generation will expect of each other, their organizations, and their communities to do more in less time.

I am struck, actually very concerned, by the stark contrasts between the technological world in which we live and the fundamental underpinnings of the humanics philosophy, so familiar to those in the Springfield College family.  

Humanics reflects the age-old Greek ideal of the balanced individual, a person’s emotional, intellectual and physical lives are interconnected; from the focus on, the development of, and the interconnection of our core three elements, we understand our obligation to with others.

And here is where our greatest challenge rests.

With a new generation of young people quickly moving away from human interactions, a new generation who relishes living in a world governed by and discovering new knowledge through technology, will humanics be jettisoned as an expendable outdated commodity of a bygone era?

How do we insure that the Humanics philosophy remains vital, vibrant, and at the core of our work while we live and breathe on the technological highway?

Let me suggest that every so often you, we, exit the technological highway to find the dirt road.

The dirt road is a good place. It is comforting and supportive of you as a person, no matter what you think, feel, or believe. The dirt road is a place of true neutrality.  There are no winners, there are no losers, there are no expectations other than to be yourself.

You’ve been on the dirt road many times. There you loosen your tie, take off your coat, roll up your sleeves, take off your shoes.

The dirt is smooth and feels wonderful on your bare feet. From up above, the sun wraps you in her blanket of warmth; she is so bright, that you must squint to look around to see where you are.

You’ll find a grassy hillside to lay down on to look at the crystal blue sky, every so often a puffy white cloud meanders along.

You smell the freshness of the air and the dew swept grass, it’s a smell that lingers and one you never forget.

And then you notice something very odd but so comforting. You once again begin to sense your entire physical, mental, and emotional being and their interconnectedness.

The offshoots of technological highway that had latched on to you, sapping your energy and spirit, are disappearing, actually being painlessly ripped off of your being.

On the dirt road you shed the wrappings that have shackled your inner soul and rediscover that there is a life to live other than the 24/7 expectations. And most importantly, the dirt road insures that the humanics philosophy – the interconnectedness between spirit, mind, and body and service to others – forever remains.

You will know when it is time to find your way back to the technological highway. Neither be sad nor despair because you can return to the dirt road whenever you wish.

You just need to give yourself permission to do so knowing you will be a better, stronger person once you’ve been there.

And just where is the dirt road?

It is closer then you think. The dinner table each night is a good place to find the dirt road – no TV, no radio, no BB or smartphone, no ipod ear plugs.  Make your dining table a “dirt road” for 15 minutes, then try 20 minutes, and really work to have a 1 hour dirt road dinner.

And what will you do in that time – talk with those for whom you care,  look at each other, listen to each other, support each other, value each other’s experiences and ultimately you create true meaning for the person.

Or, you can find the dirt road by volunteering in a program, working with others, maybe with homeless, or in a youth mentoring program, or in a meals-on-wheels program.

 Again, the dirt road is a place where you talk with people, face-to-face, and introduce them to and together walk hand-in-hand down the dirt road.

The dirt road may be as simple as opening the door for someone or helping a person with directions to a building on campus or downtown – you know the look when someone is lost.
The dirt road is here, right in front of you. It is up to each and every one of us to take the exit, to take time for others, to teach others about humanness and service to others.

The dirt road is humanics in action. Wherever you go, whatever you do, no matter what, be sure to take the exit to the dirt road.

May peace and justice be with you all. Thank you.

Graduate Commencement 2010 Photo Gallery

References
Lauer, M. (April 13, 2010). Apollo 13: the real story. Retrieved May 5, 2010. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36471007/ns/dateline_nbc-newsmakers/
Lenhart, A. (April 20, 2010). Teens, Cell Phones and Texting, Text Messaging Becomes Centerpiece Communication. Pew Research Center. Retrieved May 4, 2010.

Rosen, L. (2010). Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rideout, V; Foehr, U; and Roberts, D. (January 2010). Generation M, media in the lives of 8 to 18 year olds. MeMenlo Park, California: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.