Reinforcement and Risk
It is common knowledge that college, and especially Princeton, is not a very accurate depiction of the real world.
It is common knowledge that college, and especially Princeton, is not a very accurate depiction of the real world.
This holiday season, I’m reminded of how lively campus becomes, and how various festive celebrations and traditions will take place in the next couple of weeks.
Every so often, you might go to an academic honor society initiation or a religious gathering and hear some sort of exhortation to do good deeds or be of good character.
This past spring, Princeton’s informal motto was changed from “Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations” to “Princeton in the nation's service and the service of humanity.” It highlighted for me the notion that the University seeks serve everyone, plain and simple, rather than defining everyone by “nations,” “races,” “sexes,” or any variety of arbitrary categorizations. The idea of categorization though, the idea that we’re defined by our race, gender, or sexual orientation, seems to be a very recent phenomenon and not necessarily intentional.
Princetonians are an interesting bunch. I’ve observed, over the past three years, that they’re different from normal people.