Instead of always being with or behind the times, shouldn’t Principia aim to be consistently ahead of the times?
I think that if we are honest with ourselves, we can see that Principia is not all that it can be, just as when we look at Principia as it was in the past, we know that it was not all that it could have been. Leaping forward may be disruptive, but so was the implementation of the Internet, the civil rights movement, and the discovery of Christian Science.
There are several key things I think must be fulfilled if Principia is to ever reach its full potential: gay rights, carbon neutral sustainability, and direct confrontation.
We can no longer afford to deny gay rights. We need to stop discriminating against homosexual Christian Scientists in employment and in our admissions statements; we need to cease differentiating between gay sexual misconduct and straight sexual misconduct in the Blue Pages; and we need to protect harassment related to sexual orientation under the sexual harassment policy in our code of conduct.
Saving the environment is a no-brainer in theory, but changing the way we live isn’t easy. We have to be willing to make uncomfortably large scale changes if we wish to do our part to fight global warming and live sustainably. It is absolutely possible to become carbon neutral as long as we fully commit to it.
If we want to change something about Principia, we cannot let money or logistics hold us back. If something is right, it will be supported. If there is a donor out there somewhere who will withhold money if Principia implements gay rights, we should not hold off our progress on his account. Hundreds will come to fill his void, eager to fund a more tolerant Principia or likewise a Principia that utilizes a greater quantity of green energy.
We have to structure our policies and standards in ways that don’t force us to lie about what happens in our community, what we do in private, or what we think is right. Currently, many of our policies and punishments foster suspicion, passive aggression, dishonesty, and fear. We can have high standards without making dozens upon dozens of members of the community feel disenfranchised and disingenuous. We can raise our community to a higher standard by directly addressing the reasons behind our standards, instead of indirectly weeding out the sub-standard citizenship through suspension and expulsion.
We live in a community filled with consensually sexually active adults. We have to stop making sex a black-and-white issue. What makes sex good or bad is far more complicated than whether the couples in question are married or unmarried. Instead of dividing the community into sexual conformists and sexual deviants (who may be removed if discovered), we should spend more time talking about sex and encouraging people to make wise decisions. We can’t afford to perpetuate sexual witch-hunting. Besides, our graduating seniors will soon have to make these decisions on their own. They are best served by being given comprehensive reasons instead of artificial consequences.
When people do stupid things to themselves, they should be punished by the inevitable consequences of their own stupidity. If someone is likely to do something stupid, the best that we can do is warn them as clearly as we can. If we stop them by force, they learn nothing, and if we punish them after the fact, they still learn nothing.
Mary Baker Eddy says that we come to know Truth through Science or suffering. Somehow I don’t think that by this she meant we ought to punish each other for not growing spiritually. I for one would rather not cast the first stone, or any stones for that matter.
When we look back at how Principia has functioned in the past, we often find things that seem archaic and hard to believe, such as students having to reamain at least one Science and Health’s length apart while slow-dancing and having to keep a brick in the doorway while entertaining company of the opposite sex. Even institutionalized sexism and racism had a place at Principia back in the day.
Of course, one might say, “Well, that’s just the way things were back then. Principia was just keeping with the times.” But is that really a valid excuse for a community of people who believe that “The time for thinkers has come” (S&H)? Shouldn’t we be looking for equivalent absurdity in our present day paradigm so that people don’t look back on us and say that we behaved archaically
At present, we have the opportunity to look inside ourselves, find our ideal Principia, and actualize it. Principia changes over time, and if we hone our powers of perception in on the Principia that we know in our hearts is destined to manifest itself, we can leap forward in an instant instead of progressing in tiny hops.
Here are some little things that I think could also help improve Principia College.
People learn best when they are personally invested in things, not when they are forced to dance. My capstone was the only writing phase that really felt like it was mine. We can mix academic rigor with personal interest. If we have to jump through hoops we can at least make sure it’s fun to do so. Bureaucratic processes need not limit our expression of ideas.
We need to continue to experiment and expand academically. Project-centered learning and interdisciplinary studies are awesome. I might recommend starting a “Film Production” on the scale of the major spring and fall theater productions. All disciplines share ample seas with great unexplored depths. I also hope that the next few million dollars we choose to invest in the school will go toward an academic endeavor rather than an athletic one. I love sports, but I want to learn.
We must interact as much as possible with other colleges in the greater St. Louis area. Isolationism does not improve the academic community. By the way, film festivals or film series are a great way to interact with other colleges. PAC and the Pan African Concerence are also totally sweet. Besides, the outside world needs to have positive interactions with Christian Scientists if the Christian Science movement is to continue to grow.
My capstone has also led me to a conclusion. If we want to have full gender equality, or any type of equality, we need to have housing that is as fully integrated as possible. When we polarize people, we create inevitable inequality. Experimenting with how we live and who we live with can be just as educational as our coursework.
We must all take a long look into ourselves, into the heart of Principia, and ask ourselves what Principia needs to become in order to reflect our highest ideals. We cannot settle for less, because we know utopia is possible. We see it in our mind’s eye whenever we imagine some aspect of our environment improved.
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