Getting It Together (1972)

Drake University presents Getting It Together. >> It's a microcosm and it's the kids who, you know, do sit around on their rear ends and say, "Oh, it's too conservative here for me." They're just, you know, don't have it. they're too apathetic to get up and go look for what they're trying to find. So many kids, especially kids who have been so successful in high school, expect to come to college and, you know, here comes opportunity knocking at my door and and here comes this club they want me to join and here comes this prof he wants me to do research for. And it doesn't work that way. >> I think this is this is fundamental in in higher education. If the student feels that he belongs and he can participate, when he says something, somebody will listen. like you know they talk about well why don't more black students come here they come here if they could afford to come here I worked at places like uh Pineapple Factory and you know I thought man I'm not going to do this the rest of my life >> just find out for yourself so to speak experience is the best teacher >> I don't know what I think but I think the people are basically they're nice they're suspicious right >> there okay that's the way I think should be blocked [Music] Yeah. So being that this phrase is in minor, can we be very careful that this phrase is set off from the first phrase which is in major because it's in [Music] The university is a place for exploration and personal discovery. Who am I? What can I become? How do I get there are the questions. The university is a place to experiment with these concerns. We want to share a university with you. Drake as one university campus illustrates all institutions of higher education. And in every case, their responsibility is to help students whether young or old to get it all together. [Music] I love myself every day of my life and I hate myself every day of my life. I have self-doubt every day of my life and I have self-confidence every day of my life. I run all the emotions. This is all I really do when I play the piano. And when the song says I love you, I play that way. And when the song says I hate you, I play that way. And I think that's the reason that my records have sold. I think that the only thing that we're really here in this world for is to try and use what we have been given to the best advantage. It's the discipline that you discipline yourself with that really counts in life. And I feel many times that the schools of the future will more and more insist on your own initiative, your own discipline, not theirs. I do remember the teachers that made me work for myself and made me develop my own initiative. And that really is all that college should do or all that school should do is make you develop your own initiative. >> Right? That's what it is. And then they realize after their freshman year that there's more to learning than in textbooks. So they go out and they look for outside activities. >> Don't you think that your experience as a volunteer also extends into other areas of your life? >> Sure. I mean once you start helping people and realize that there are uh people that do need your help and that can really benefit tremendously you give more yourself to other people. At least I found that. >> Yeah. And if I find it hard I mean like I can't turn my back on in these little you know I mean cuz I you know just like I realize >> there used to be that barrier where you thought that you'd be imposing yourself on somebody else but now you feel that well maybe somebody else would would like a piece of you more or less. You know, I found myself opening up more to everybody. Like before I was even in the program, I had my select people I were I was involved with and it was it and that's where it was cut off. Another person would never get in. >> Right. >> At this program, I more or less had to open up to different people and different [Music] >> and we want you to do about the same thing as you're doing. You're closing your eyes, but you're going to open your eyes this time and you can you're going to try to go through the music. Make your feelings on the paper. [Music] [Music] color. >> Give me that white. >> I want yellow. [Music] They draw, we can understand them better. Possibly they should understand us a bit more. [Music] >> I noticed a few of the students took the paint and looked at it and the texture it made on their hands and we got talking and we could relate it to texture of these. So I mean that pleases me. Oh, they do retain this stuff even though it it doesn't seem like it. this week or next week that are you going to say we failed but maybe seven weeks from now you'll realize that they did get something from it. I worked at Smouse for a short time last semester in one of my classes here and I was working with all uh physically handicapped children those that had cerebal palsy and everything else and at first I don't know it I had a problem getting adjusted to the whole thing after this was over I found these kids had a much more mature attitude on a lot of things than do kids in let's say public school systems and they had their own philosophies on life and they seemed like they were quite quite easy to work with. >> You know, this sort of seems to be a misconception that that he has to go back into the his black community and he must help his black brothers and sisters. I think he helps his community by the mere fact that he did go to college, you know, >> um >> this is more or le this more or less shows the community that, you know, he could make something of himself um and that others in the community, you know, can go back and and make something of themselves. and he doesn't necessarily have to go back into the black community per se. You know, I've come back to help my brothers and sisters. I don't I don't think this is really necessary. I think he helps them in the fact that he did go away to school, >> right? >> Yeah. An easier teacher. And I can see that point of view because, >> you know, if some kid is not interested at all and gets a super tough teacher in English or geometry or something, >> right? you know, they they just and if they have a simpler a teacher who can who puts it at a lower level, it'll make things a lot more >> pleasant. You know, >> teachers have a lot to say what what your um future is going to be like because just the influence of the teachers in high school and in college and comparisons and you just you kind of work out from the teachers that you've had what you want to be as a teacher. >> People it's not maybe because they're inherently evil. It's they're not aware. Okay. They're not aware of each other. They don't think about what they're doing or about how the person the other people might feel. It's it's lack of awareness or or ignorance or stupidity or something. >> Ignorance. Ignorance. It's gets exactly down to the thing that I was saying that the basis of everything. Education is the only important thing. It's not that people are mean or this or that or that because they want to be or because they know what they're doing. It's a question that they're not educated. I really feel like going on this worldwide thing to save the world, you know, like a Christian scientist all by myself and I'm going to I'm going to educate. >> Education does not teach people how to be good to other people. You can be really smart and you can still be rotten and you can still be unkind to people and cheat and lots of times people go away and they learn and they learn how to hide. >> I think it's a question of education. And that's why like at a school the honors >> involuntary servitude is part of our constitution and yet nobody considers the draft as involuntary servitude except I think that you're finding that a lot of the people in the new right and probably definitely a lot of people in the new left are considering it that way. >> Yeah. But their problem is that they will cooperate with that system. Here we get into the philosophy again. they they will cooperate with that system as long as it exists. They're not freethinking individuals. >> I think the person could be freethinking and still cooperate with the system. I don't necessarily believe in the draft. I don't believe in student. >> But you will cooperate with them. >> But I will you will you will go over to Vietnam and fight for that draft. >> I don't give a Yeah. If you're >> if I'm drafted, however, they're not sending drafties there. >> And you don't think that infringes upon your individual right? >> I definitely believe that the draft infringes upon my >> Then fight it. But how do you want to fight it? I've been working through channels to do it. >> But if you want to work outside the channels, it doesn't really do any good. >> Well, it doesn't do anything in the channel. Something else. >> Our generation has gotten this big myth. And this has come to them, I think, from the TV and everything of everything. Right now, >> our generation has been brought up in this area. If they wanted to be entertained, all mommy and daddy did was set up in front of the TV and they had their entertainment right now. It wasn't having to wait for the Saturday night movie to go in town like earlier generations. If they wanted to go someplace to another town, it was a matter of going right now. If it was close, you drive. If it was further, you fly. So, our generation now wants change and they want it right now. They don't understand that you have to wait. I think that a person can pull a lot of weight in politics. Man, we don't we don't have time to wait. You know, we have bonds that are going to destroy us. You know, we don't have time to wait. And with Nixon in the administration, you know. >> Yeah. But you stop you stop and think about >> the university represents standards. It demands performance and self-discipline. Education is more than realizing the needs of others. It is preparation to do something about it. I have a feeling particularly dealing with freshmen a lot in introductory psychology that somehow they want answers given them and I don't feel that that's my function. My function is to expose them to information and make them think to make them use that information to do something. I guess my first impression of what the university ought to be doing is is allowing minds to see each other operating thinking. >> Well, it wasn't the same thing said though about the industrial revolution, all the countless inventions then uh that uh these machines which would replace men and men would become massively unemployed. But yet we've never had uh long extended periods of massive unemployment uh uh through these developments. >> Yeah. Isn't it just a case of uh back then when you took away a man's physical trade like a digging a ditch or something, you replaced it with a machine, you were able to retrain that man in another physical trade. see the university having a a big role to play, a duty to help people in all fields to continue to keep up with what's happening. >> I assume then that there's a span of time which will be involved here. Have you thought through this going to be a five-year time series study? This is going to be two years or one year or what what do you have in mind here? Well, uh, the class project has a limited amount of time. And I, when I say time series, I mean I'm going to have to look at, uh, using time as the variable by which to measure expenses. >> And eventually it it evolves into a teamwork kind of thing in which students are directly and personally involved in all kinds of problems, scientific problems, literary problems, all kinds of problems. And if we start chipping away at um social cohesive forces as we have done, you will find that there's only one thing left and that is the law. And if we start chipping away at the law, >> okay, what do you mean by the law? If you keep saying the law, what would you define what you mean by the law? >> How can I define the law? If I was able to do that, I'd be good. The greatest thing that can happen to a teacher, I think, is to have the student come in after class and say, "I was just thinking about this question and and so I went over to the library and looked it up or I went downtown and I talked to somebody else about it and here's what they say. Now, what do you think?" this once you can get the student to uh to to developing this curiosity and enough and enough uh motivation to to go out and begin to try to solve the problem, then you know you're getting somewhere. But like in high school, I got real good grades without studying. But in college, I mean, you can pass. >> You can get a C. >> You can get a C. There's no problem in getting a C if you if you just uh put a minimum amount of time studying. But if you want to get good grades, so you really got to book it. >> I walked into my Milton class one day this week and one of my pet graduate students said shortly before I was to deliver an oration, I suppose, I hate Milton and what do you do about this sort of thing? Is she uh how can you change the mind of the student given this or can you and this is probably I think the answer can you make him have tolerance and flexibility? One of the problems with higher education is that we've been for so many years trying to provide blueprints rather than >> some kind of tolerance and flexibility. People expect us to turn out students from an English major or whatever standpoint who know exactly what's going to happen in the world outside. And that isn't true. We've given them every tool we can. But the main thing that we've got to give them, I think, is a certain flexibility. They get out and they learn to adapt. But they look back and they see well the various things I read or the various kinds of teachers I had or the people I met in my classes were different attitudes toward various kinds of experience and they're not my way but I learn from them either negatively or positively. >> What we try and do is expose you to other people's ideas to other people's solutions but you have to pick and choose. You have to take responsibility for somehow evolving a way to approach it. It's forced me to do thinking that I wasn't forced to do before. >> You are becoming a person in a very real sense that you've never done before because you are you in your own. You have to hold your own as an individual. [Music] The university is part of a lifelong competition. Athletics highlight the necessity for performance. A classroom, laboratory, and running track have one thing in common. They measure achievement and let you know your potential for the future. I'm working hard towards a goal and accomplishing it. And that's what the most important thing in life for me right now is to feel that I'm making progress towards the goal that I have in mind right now, which is the Olympics. It's just an unescribable thing trying to be the best in the world. Well, really, I'm more interested in success than money. I want to I want to say to myself that I've accomplished something and that I'm doing something worthwhile. >> Here you go. A matter of discipline maturing emotionally today occurs frequently on the field. A young man coming out of high school get in on the college campus and on the football field grows up in a hurry. Okay, that's it. >> I was always taught that before you could be a good winner, you had to be able to be a good loser. Good. All right. Now, that's better. Jerry, >> I work with a great number of people and sometimes uh the decision that is reached by management is not the one that I would reach on my own. >> But, uh I fully realize that somebody has to make that decision. Once that decision is made, then I become part of the team. >> Okay. That's the way that's Bob. You went the wrong way. You got that noseman on that. You got to go that strong side. >> It's always You always go strong side. You always going to call side. All you got to worry about. All right, let's go. 1442. >> Mark. Larry. >> All right, here we go. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. Now, once you feel that stunt, Larry, once you feel that stunt, bring it widen out your bait a little bit. >> Little tight. >> All right, let's go. 13 block. >> No, you're coming right out after that man, Larry. You're coming right after that man here. Now, he's going away. You just turn around here and just make a wall cuz that linebacker will be coming. I'll guarantee heaven. >> This guy going to bump right into you. >> No. Bob's coming. Bob is taking that step. Bob is coming right here. He's coming to cut off his first step right there. >> All right. >> You want no more seal on this, do you? >> No. No. We're going to block that mic all the way. >> Oh, yeah. >> We'll be there in a second. >> All right. 1442. >> Which one? >> 1442. All right. You're here. And you're here, Larry. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] How do you feel about that? that you had to stay on campus and you had >> really didn't you get a date for any of the 3 years you all >> did you ever ask me that all >> what do you expect from a date >> a good time or you're looking for something more warm some sort of emotional >> No it doesn't the emotions can come afterwards You really have to establish something that you can communicate with somebody. >> It's the whole thing. >> If you can't talk, if you know, we were talking about it before. If you can't talk to somebody, it's it's almost senseless because you you lose all your interest. >> Mhm. >> You know, you can get hot and heavy in a car or anything else, but if you can't talk about something before and after and it's pointless. Is that the kind of relationship you want with a girl to talk to someone to be with, to communicate with? >> Yeah, that's where it all starts. >> It's the same thing with you. You guys have talked about that. >> That's real hard to believe though from from my point of view that a guy would ask me out and just be interested in listening to what I have to say. >> Yeah, but I'm That's not the only thing, but that's where it has to start. >> Do you respect a girl's opinion? I mean, do you do you feel that a girl can have the same emotions? >> No. Seriously, though, Fred, do you feel that a girl can have the same emotions and same same drive? I mean, like, you know, drive to accomplish things in life that you can have. >> Sure. >> Do you feel that she's as rational as you are and that she has the common sense that you have >> in most cases? >> You still have that in most cases that little that little bit of discrimination. >> Yeah. The defense. >> And you're you're a good I've noticed how other people perceive me or how they think of me and I I almost try and react according to what they consider I should be like like their image of me is is the image I try and fulfill and even even if it's it's completely different from what I want to be you somehow >> it's easier to be that it's a labeling thing. >> Yeah. Right. And I know so many times in in dating situations, I I've wanted to be an individual and I wanted to be thought of as a person first and a woman next. And and yet you can't get away from this this sex object thing. I I feel like um people look at me first as a sex object and then if there's any individuality involved, it's secondary. And that that really is upsetting to me. >> Yeah. So, you know, I hear she's an intellectual on top of it. Oh boy, that's what a challenge, you know. >> Yeah. In fact, I I honestly think that a lot of a lot of men like to topple the image, you know, or like if they hear that you have, you know, brains on top of it, you know, it's a challenge and they want to destroy you more than, you know, care about you or learn to know you. But maybe, you know, that just might be my individual hangup. And from what I've known of my own relationships, I don't know. Have you sensed the same thing? >> I I know that myself. I started judging people by different criterion than I used to when I first came to college. Before I didn't judge them at all, >> you know, I really didn't think about who they Yeah. >> And I would look in the yearbook and see their picture. And um >> he's in football. >> What house is he in or you know, >> is he in a house that >> he's not in a house? It's no good. >> Forget it. Forget it. >> Do you think that there's less love within the family? That every person's out for themselves now? No, I don't think so. I I think that it can be even stronger because you do rely more on your mate. You know, the love between a husband and a wife. >> I think what she may what saying is that the love is still there, but I think the manners of expressing this have changed somewhat because of the way the family has become. Uh let's face it, these people, parents have to become aware of how things are changing and what is going on because to go with old ideas. Uh and I'm not talking generation gap. I'm just saying keeping up to date. Okay, you were 18 once. Fine. That's great. But what are 18year-olds into now? >> I got to try it. I got to try it. I'm running. Try it. We want to >> want to go to college. Want to go to school. Don't want to be sorry. I want a place where I could treasure. [Music] How do you describe a university? Not with words, but with people. Students and faculty are the university. [Music] Getting it together is a tough job and is sometimes difficult for parents and alumni to understand. Drake has tried to give you a perspective on this process. Why? Because we believe the university is a critical resource for our society. The potential of our youth is the future of our country. I was set to go to college, you know, and then I came to college and uh I've I think I've expanded myself just trying to get things straightened out. >> Um it's forced me to do thinking that I wasn't forced to do before. >> It's these kids that have been handed things all through their life, especially in high school. They go to college, expect the same thing, and fail. And they wonder why. It's a place to get it together. >> Finding out who you are and where you're going, which I think a lot of students hang-ups right now. >> I think any college is really just what you make it. >> College students can be very idealistic. >> But there's so much opportunity. This is still the real world. >> Get himself together for that outside world. >> If you just open your eyes, you find everything here. It's just like life. It's a microcosm. This is still the real world. It's a place to get it together. >> Find out who you are. Where you going? >> Place to get it together. >> Find out who you are. Where you going? Who you are. Where you going?