Notes from President Pribbenow
Conflict and learning
As I write this column, there are reports from
far and near of conflicts in the world that reflect
fundamental questions about our values
and aspirations. We have witnessed clashes on the
Augsburg campus between different lifestyles and
value systems. We have experienced shootings in
our neighborhood and lived in the aftermath of violence
in our community. We have seen mass gatherings
in neighboring states reflecting deep divisions
in visions of a good society and a good life. And we
have felt the rising tide of freedom and democracy
in nations around the world and the seismic shifts
underway in political and social systems.
The challenge we must face as a teaching and
learning community is what we will do in the face
of this conflict. Will we withdraw and wait to see
what happens? Or will we find in the various conflicts
the “stuff” of a liberal arts education and the
inspiration to put our education to work in engaging
the conflicts and seeking to make a difference
in the world?
I think it is fair to assume that the Augsburg
community chooses the latter challenge.
Recently, prospective Augsburg scholarship students were asked to reflect on a provocative quote from the great American educator and philosopher, John Dewey, who once wrote:
Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to
observation and memory. It instigates
to invention. It shocks us out of sheep-like
passivity, and sets us at noting and
contriving. Not that it always effects this result;
but conflict is a ‘sine qua non’ of
reflection and ingenuity.
As I listened to these aspiring Auggies consider
what Dewey intended, I was convinced that this
quote gets at the heart of an Augsburg education.
Our students learn to observe and remember. Our students engage and learn from the messiness
and complexity and conflict of the world through
experiences on campus, in our urban neighborhood,
and around the world. Our students—indeed
our entire community—are shocked out of passivity
to be informed, thoughtful, and courageous actors
in the world.
This issue of Augsburg Now offers ample evidence
of Dewey’s argument for the links between
conflict and learning. Chris Stedman’s journey
through interfaith dialogues—a growing aspect of
an Augsburg education—illustrates how our students
face otherness and difference in considering
their own callings in the world. The work of our
MBA students helping neighborhood youth start a
small business reflects the ways in which
Augsburg’s location in the city shapes an education
that does not flinch from the realities of urban life.
And the good reports on student research projects
offer important evidence of how an Augsburg education— across the disciplines—challenges our students
to fight complacency, to push the edges of
learning, and not to settle for what is expected.
I am proud to report that in our classrooms and residence halls, on campus and out in the community, and indeed all around the world, Auggies are pursuing what John Dewey called us to be— informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. We are learning from our experiences of the complexities and messiness and conflicts of the world—and then we are getting to work in our own ways, with our distinctive gifts and callings.
