Kendal University, cont.

The course offerings at Kendal University continue to dazzle. Three evening lectures over the past month, all delivered by current residents to standing-room-only crowds in the Amelia Room, make the point.

In the first, Susan Richardson spoke about the internment of Japanese men, women, and children (including American citizens) during World War II. An emerita professor of English at Denison, Susan has edited the memoirs of her friend, Toyo Suyemoto, under the title I Call to Remembrance. Susan told of life in the internment camps, of the ways in which the internees worked to recreate the habits and organizations of their pre-internment days (such as churches, Scouts, choirs), and of the difficulties they faced in post-camp life. She interspersed her account of camp experiences by reading several of Toyo Suyemoto's poems and by showing sketches of camp life drafted by interned artists. A warmly appreciative audience had many questions and comments after Susan's remarks.

About a week later David Skeen spoke on "Positive Psychology." David is a Denisom alumnus who went on to a distinguished career at Muskingum College, where he taught psychology, served a long term as dean of students, and retired with the president's commendation that he was "the quintessential professor" ringing in his ears. After a brief history of the subject of psychology – a history that had all too often focused on psychological maladies – David noted that in recent decades psychological research had also turned to exploring the foundations for psychological health. Pointing to the results of empirical research, he introduced the audience to concepts and web sites that might help them understand themselves (and others too, no doubt) more constructively. Once again, a cascade of questions and comments followed the presentation.

Just two days later David Bayley spoke on "Governing the Police." He situated his topic by noting that all societies work for some balance between freedom and order, and that in democratic societies it is the police who are the public face of the instrumentalization of that balance. David is a rock star among scholars of policing. He has studied policing in many societies, he has written a number of books on the subject, and he has advised United Nations bodies and young nations on sound policing. In his talk David drew on his studies of policing in six Anglophone countries – the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, and New Zealand. His focus was on the interplay between the role of the police and the role of the politicians who, either directly or indirectly, oversee their work in all those nations. Yet again, when the talk was over, the comments and questions began.

When I left this last talk I felt that I needed to prepare a blog entry about the remarkable lecture program we have here at Kendal at Granville. For not only are the speakers first rate, so is the audience – attentive, curious, and ready to challenge. Together, speakers and audience make up a great combination, allowing Kendal at Granville to be an arena for exciting educational events. I find that a very satisfying thought.