Selected Writings
Jerry Pattengale, Chicago Tribune (3/04/03) 1:13 (The version below is from its reprint in The Purpose-Guided Student [McGraw-Hill]).
She answered the door naked. It was an awkward moment for my youngest brother and me. She was over 80.
It was an unfortunate, unforgettable moment for the boys from Buck Creek, Ind.
She thrust open the door and pulled me in with my parasitic sibling affixed to my other arm. I moved like the Ice Man, frozen and silent for what seemed like eternity. My brother pressed his hand tightly against his grinning baby-toothed smile. Read more
Jerry A. Pattengale, Indiana Wesleyan University. This article appeared in Growth Journal (Spring 2006) in an edited form and is used here with permission. The essence of this article served as the background for numerous conference and campus presentations, is reflected in Jerry’s “Forward” to Tracy L. Skipper’s text, Student Development in the First College Year: A Primer for College Educators (2005, National Resource Center, ISBN-13 978-1-889271-52-1), and is the fulcrum of Jerry’s texts The Purpose-Guided Student and Why I Teach (McGraw-Hill). These notions also frame the lead chapter in Helping Sophomores Succeed (Jossey Bass)--co-authored with John Gardner, Mary Stuart Hunter, Scott Evenbeck, Barbara Tobolowsky, Laurie Schreiner and Molly Schaller.
INTRODUCTION: IS SOMETHING AWRY IN WANTING SATISFIED STUDENTS?
The majority of student success programs are actually programs of student non-dissatisfaction. Addressing student dissatisfaction may nudge retention rates a bit higher, but this approach targets second-rate causes of student attrition.
Campuses that begin their retention efforts with student satisfaction surveys often focus on areas of dissatisfaction—aspects of the college experience rarely tied to student motivation. Therein is the main problem facing many well-oiled student success efforts. The removal of dissatisfaction neither guarantees satisfaction nor addresses motivation—an observation popularized by psychologist Frederick Herzberg (1991/2005). Read More
Writing History in Public
Originally published in Books and Culture at http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/mayjun/1.20.html
"Public intellectual." If the term irritates you, get over it—or substitute your own coinage. What matters is the reality being pointed at, argued over, catalogued. Google the term and you'll find what at first appears to be a lively conversation. On closer inspection, you may be struck by the narrow boundaries of most of the talk. Who qualifies for the title, and what kind of work counts in the public conversation: those crucial matters get defined in very cramped ways.
And contrary to some widely circulated jeremiads, the species is thriving. Consider Susan Wise Bauer, whose books The Well-Educated Mind (2003, written with Jessie Wise) and The Well-Trained Mind (2004) found a ready audience among homeschooling families and intellectually curious souls more generally, and who now is engaged on nothing less than a history of the world in four volumes, intended for the common reader. Read More
