On a visit to Knox College, Mark took a moment to talk about how you might find plenty of unconventional and progressive thinking happening in places you might not expect.
Check this video out to learn more about this college with a beautiful campus.
Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
If you prefer, you may read the transcript below.
*****************
I’m here today on the campus of Knox College, which is in Galesburg, Illinois. It’s a relatively rural area; small town, agricultural town. Illinois is a very agricultural state. We always think of Illinois and Chicago, but most of the state is agricultural. Knox is a liberal arts college, and beautiful campus; and most people would think that Knox would not be a very progressive place to go to school. Actually, places like Knox, and we also visited Earlham yesterday, Earlham College in Indiana. In some ways, Knox is a hot bed of progressive thinking. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were held here, and if you think about it, the Midwest engendered some of the most progressive thinking when this area was first settled, it was anti-slavery. It was definitely thinking outside the box beyond the status quo.
Certainly in a place like this, you’re going to have people who come from the surrounding states. Many of the students who come here are within say a 300 mile drive. However, the kind of thinking that goes on here is not inside the box. It is not rural agrarian thinking; it is very much connected with the world. Knox has that tradition, and the students and the faculty here do a lot of individualized research. This is a very strong, academic environment. Yes, it’s a little further afield, shall we say, than many other colleges who may be more suburban or urban, but don’t let that fool you that the kind of thinking that goes on, on a campus like this, is relatively status quo. It’s not; you’re going to be challenged here, you’re going to be focusing on learning and isn’t that what your education is all about?
