{"id":262,"date":"2008-10-24T18:36:41","date_gmt":"2008-10-24T18:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2008\/10\/24\/liberation-education\/"},"modified":"2008-10-24T18:36:41","modified_gmt":"2008-10-24T18:36:41","slug":"liberation-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2008\/10\/24\/liberation-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberation Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Steve Charles<\/em>\u2014On Sunday in Salter Hall, David Porter will play Charles Ives\u2019 Concord Sonata,<\/em> one of the most difficult pieces in the piano repertoire. He just published a book on Willa Cather. He gave a Classics lecture on the poetry of Horace last night. He\u2019s been president of Skidmore and Carleton colleges, turned out more papers than a forest full of southern pine, and is currently professor of the liberal arts at Williams College.<\/p>\n

In the first 10 minutes of our conversation (after graciously dismissing the fact that I was late) he glides through 20th century 12-tone music, the works of Cather, and a little Latin, and when I nod my head he says, \u201cOh, I imagine you know that one,\u201d and I hope to God he doesn\u2019t call me on it.<\/p>\n

So what would you ask this person Professor Leslie Day calls \u201cthe quintessential liberal arts man\u201d?<\/p>\n

I pull out a question straight from Senior Comps\u2014”Compare and contrast Charles Ives and Willa Cather.” He doesn\u2019t miss a beat. Then, after learning more about these two artists in 15 minutes than I\u2019d picked up in my previous 52-plus years of life, it’s time for another question. Since we\u2019re talking in Trippet Hall, home of The Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash, I put to him the question the Center worked on for years: “Define the liberal arts.”<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my,\u201d Professor of the Liberal Art Porter says.<\/p>\n

Have I found a gotcha question?<\/p>\n

Then he smiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiberation,\u201d he says. \u201cStudies that liberate the individual to do things that otherwise would not be possible. Liberating from prejudices and ignorance, and opening doors to things they might never have thought could be interesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI teach a course in Greek tragedy,\u201d he says. \u201cMost of the students have never read any of this, and it\u2019s fun to watch the them because at first it\u2019s frustrating for them\u2014such strange stuff. But it opens doors for them, and they will find things there that will set their own mind free imaginatively.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s one definition of education: \u2018That which remains after you\u2019ve forgotten what you\u2019ve learned.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI teach Greek, and we spend untold hours learning 600 forms of one everyday verb. I know that the majority the students in that class are not going to study Classics. Five or ten years out, they will have forgotten most of those things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat will remain? They will have learned a kind of intellectual rigor, problem solving, certain organizational skills that will transfer to all things. All of us are dealing in this modern world with huge complexities. So that\u2019s the kind of field that liberates your mind, gives you skills you didn\u2019t know you could have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter once held a dual appointment in Classics and music at Carleton College.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey feed off each other,\u201d Porter says. \u201cThe writing I\u2019ve done in music has drawn on what I know from Classics, and my work in Classics is very much inspired by what I know of music. The two have been wonderfully cross-fertilizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have found that working in a lot of different fields is very liberating because you realize these barriers that are built up can be transcended. And when you do, wonderful things happen. Taking a chance is part of liberation\u2014you must be willing to take big chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why David Porter is the Professor of the Liberal Arts.<\/p>\n

He has a particular fondness for Wabash, too. His uncle was the late Robert Harvey, English professor and director of the Wabash College News Bureau. He recalls stopping by Wabash to visit \u201cUncle Bob\u201d at least once a year throughout his childhood. And this is the second time he\u2019s played the Concord Sonata here, The first was in the late 1960s, when his accompanist on flute was Mary Lou Mielke.<\/p>\n

He plays this \u201cgreatest piece of American music\u201d once again this Sunday at 4 p.m. in Salter Hall. It\u2019s a challenging listen, Porter admits. But he’ll talk us through it. \u201cI never play Ives without pre-performance comments,\u201d he says. If he can talk music the way he does Cather and Ives, prepare to understand a piece of music like you never thought you could.<\/p>\n

He promises that the final movement, complete with guest flutist, is, appropriately \u201ctranscendent.\u201d<\/p>\n

In photo: Professor Porter enjoys teaching at Wabash.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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