Constructive unhappiness

In October 2007, the former Dean of Harvard College, Harry Lewis, gave an interview to The Dartmouth Apologia in which he spoke about the integration of faith and reason in the modern university. He opined, "You should not be able to graduate from Harvard without taking a course that kept you up at night worried, sleepless, troubled . . . Students want to leave class with a smile, but I think we should recognize that you can’t mature unless you are occasionally made constructively unhappy."

I've thought about this from time to time, and more so recently. Did I take any classes at Dartmouth that troubled me to the point of sleeplessness? I certainly took classes that worked me to the point of sleeplessness, courtesy of term papers with rapidly approaching due dates, but I'm not sure I ever encountered a curriculum that troubled me in the way Dean Lewis describes.

This stems partly from the classes I took. Out of thirty four courses, nearly two-thirds were literature or history classes, my major and minor fields. Many of the others were selected because they fulfilled one of Dartmouth's various distributive requirements. But when I took classes purely for interest and not to fulfill any specific requirements--though my English and history classes often met both criteria--they were often dogmatically unchallenging courses like Beethoven in Context or Spanish composition.

Yet according to Dean Lewis, intellectual maturity is impossible without such intermittent catharsis. College classes are not the only way to experience this, of course, or else no intellectual growth would occur past the age of twenty one. Nevertheless, his point is apt. If we are not constantly being challenged by new ideas and perspectives--which will inevitably include some intellectual discomfort and unhappiness--then growth will be difficult.

So in honor of the start of the new Dartmouth term, allow me to echo Dean Lewis's exhortation to abandon intellectual insularity. College student or not, embrace opportunities to engage with the new and unfamiliar. Be willing to lie awake nights wrestling with what you are learning. You may not walk away smiling, but it will surely be worth it.

If you would like to read more, the full text of the interview is available here on the Apologia website.