chanel
Silver Member
As we begin at Harvard, we commit to upholding the values of the College and to making the entryway and Yard a place where all can thrive and where the exercise of kindness holds a place on par with intellectual attainment.
Kindness isnt a public or intellectual virtue, but a personal one. It is a form of love. Kindness seeks, above all, to avoid hurt. Criticism -- even objective, impersonal, well- intended, constructive criticism -- isnt kind. Criticism hurts peoples feelings, and it hurts most when the recipient realizes its accurate. Treating kindness as the way to civil discourse doesnt show students how to argue with accuracy and respect. It teaches them instead to neither give criticism nor tolerate it.
And that brings us to the second half of the pledge equation: intellectual attainment. Not inquiry or excellence, but attainment. What a strange, and revealing, choice of words.
Harvard Now Values
Oh brother...