A Very Blessing Through All One's Days

Thoughts for the new academic year

When I was a high school senior looking at schools, I visited Yale for a student weekend. I didn't end up at Yale, but a plaque I saw in the Jonathan Edwards College dining hall made a deep impression on me. I don't know who Robert Chapman Bates was, but his words influenced the course of my life. As I'm about to start my 28th year as a professor (and my 15th at St. John's), his quote still rings true for me. Here it is, for all the other professors who follow this blog. Happy new semester, everyone:

But if you can't help it, do go into teaching

For it is the only profession I know of

In which even discouragement and defeat are sweet;

In which the unattained goal is a reward;

In which the not-complete failure is a triumph

And a very blessing through all one's days.

— Robert Chapman Bates, Fellow of this College 1933-1942