![[Home]](/images/zh.gif)
Professor Maynard Mack, Jr., aka "Sandy" Mack, directs the Honors Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. A few gems from his conversation yesterday with parents of prospective UM students:
And of course, being a "reflective student" applies not just to classwork, but to all of life ...
A search for other examples of Sandy Mackisms led me to David Bindel, a student of mathematics and computer science now in grad school at Berkeley. His collection of "Sandy's Sermons" http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~dbindel/sermons.html from the 1997-99 era provides much to ponder. Bindel himself seems to be a kindred spirit: his "Personal Page" http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~dbindel/personal.html offers many pointers to topics that I already enjoy, plus links to things that I clearly need to learn more about.
Time for me to start studying (and thinking about what I'm studying (and thinking about the act of thinking about what I'm studying, and ... ) ... ) ...
(see also DoMeta (8 May 1999), MetaHominidae (7 February 2000), IdiocyAmelioration (18 Apr 2000), MetaMan (14 Nov 2001), MyAffectations (19 Jan 2003), ... )
TopicThinking - TopicSociety - TopicLife - TopicProfiles - Datetag20040317
I tracked this entry back from David Bindel's blog.
May I comment on the subjects of this section? I have known David Bindel for a long time, and was once a student of Sandy Mack. Both are scholars, but in different modes. David is the Confucian chuen-tzu--the perfect gentleman. He is contemplative and polite, self-effacing and unassuming to the point of asceticism, and possessed of a strong and playful curiosity. Sandy is the man of the Renaissance. He is a scholar of Shakespeare, Socrates without cynicism, and perpetually surrounded by the aura of Comedy. Neither are possessed of the common sins of scholars: pedantry, equivocation, or aloofness. They are both inspirational and genuine people.
A conversation with David or Sandy regularly produces the sensation of "clearly I need to learn more about X". With David, it stems from the playful curiosity I have described. Talking to him produces an awareness of whole new problems to be pondered and phenomena to be studied. Sandy's fondness for humanity, both generally and specifically, is infectious. Sandy can make the act of drinking coffee alone in a public place an act of communion with humanity at large.
Sandy is very fond of David, a fact made the more meaningful in that the two were not, as far as I know, connected in the usual campus ties at Maryland. That he recognized the profound and radiating virtue of David should, in retrospect, be no surprise. Nor should we be surprised that David, of all of the Honors Listserv subscribers, should recognize the treasure of the Sermons.