Goldenberg
to promote playfulness at seminar
 William
Goldenberg majored in mathematics as an undergraduate while he plotted
a course for medicine.
“I took a lot
of math and science courses, and I was admitted to medical school,”
said Goldenberg, a Presidential Teaching Professor in the NIU School
of Music. “I didn’t do it. Music was what I wanted.”
Yet nearly a
quarter-century after he began teaching music at NIU, Goldenberg
finds a prominent connection between the teaching of music and the
teaching of … well, just about anything else, including even the
strictest hard sciences: playfulness.
“Every discipline
depends on playfulness. You need to kind of open your mind and be
playful. You need to allow for any thoughts that might develop in
your mind to blossom,” Goldenberg said.
“Later you have
to judge them – the buzz word today is ‘assessment’ – but first
you must allow your mind to be open to whatever is playful. Creativity
is really what it amounts to. That is what I did when I was working
in mathematics, trying to prove theorems.”
Goldenberg will
lead “The Playful Touch: Developing the Whole Human Being Harmoniously
in Community,” a Presidential Teaching Professor Seminar scheduled
for noon Tuesday, Nov. 16, in the Capitol Room of the Holmes Student
Center.
Refreshments
will be served at 11:30 a.m. All are invited. Call 753-1085 for
more information.
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STORY
International
Week celebrates NIU diversity
 NIU
will commemorate the sixth annual International Week, from Nov.
15-19, with an array of activities designed to enhance awareness
and appreciation of the diverse international cultures represented
on campus and in DeKalb.
The university
celebrates International Week in conjunction with the national observance
of International Education Week, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department
of State and the U.S. Department of Education.
“All of us in
international education salute these federal agencies for recognizing
the strategic national importance of encouraging students and faculty
to cross borders in both directions,” said Deborah Pierce, executive
director of NIU’s Division of International Programs.
“Particularly
at this critical time, it is vital for the people of the United
States to learn more about the citizens and cultures of other nations,”
Pierce added. “Through international education, we enhance U.S.
national security.”
A highlight
of the week will be the founding induction ceremony for NIU’s newest
honor society, Zeta Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Delta. Seventy-eight
faculty, staff and students have been elected charter members to
the honor society for international scholars. The society aims to
recognize those who enhance the international perspective in higher
education across the country and around the world.
FULL
STORY |
