1、I don’t think that there is anything massively disruptive about this shifting sense of community. The continuing search for connection and shared enterprise is very human. But I do feel uncomfortable with our shifting identity. The balance has tipped, and we seem increasingly dependent on work for our sense of self.If our offices are our new neighborhoods, if our professional titles are our new ethnic tags, then how do we separate ourselves from our jobs? Selfworth isn’t just something to measure in the marketplace. But in these new communities, it becomes harder to tell who we are without saying what we do.2、Onward and upward was the course she set. Small progress was no excuse for feeling satisfied with yourself. People who stopped to pat themselves on the back didn’t last long. Even if you got to the top, you’d better not take it easy. “The bigger they com e, the harder they fall” was one of her favorite maxims.It wasn’t the gin that was shouting. It was my mother. The gin only gave me the courage to announce to them that yes, by God, I had always believed in success, had always believed that without hard work and self-discipline you could never amount to anything, and didn’t deserve to3、With no idea what to do next, I resolved literally to “sail off into the sunset,” following the coastline from Connecticut to Florida. But somewhere off New Jersey I turned due east, straight out to sea. Hours later, I climbed up on the stern rail and watched the dark Atlantic slip beneath the hull. How easy it would be to let the water take me, I thought.Everyone, at some point, will suffer a loss —the loss of loved ones, good health, a job. “It’s your ‘desert experience’ — a time of feeling barren of options, even hope,” explains Patrick Del Zoppo, a psychologist and bereavement specialist with the Archdiocese of New York. “The important thing is not to allow yourself to be stranded in the desert.”4、Happiness is never more than partial. There are no pure states of mankind. Whatever else happiness may be, it is neither in having nor in being, but in becoming. What the Founding Fathers declared for us as an inherent right, we should do well to remember, was not happiness but the pursuit of happiness. What they might have underlined, could they have foreseen the happiness market, is the cardinal fact that happiness is in the pursuititself, in the meaningful pursuit of whatis life-engaging and life-revealing,which is to say, in the idea of becoming.A nation is not measured by what itpossesses or wants to possess, but bywhat it wants to become.By all means let thehappiness-market sell us minorsatisfactions and even minor follies solong as we keep them in scale and buythem out of spiritual change. I am nocustomer for either Puritanism orasceticism. But drop any real spiritualcapital at those bazaars, and what youcome home to will be your ownpoorhouse.6、What they should say is “Don’tbe afra id to fail!” Failure isn’t fatal.Countless people have had a bout withit and come out stronger as a result.Many have even come out famous.History is strewn with eminentdropouts, “loners” who followed theirown trail, not worrying about its oddtwists and turns because they had faithin their own sense of direction. To readtheir biographies is always exhilarating,not only because they beat the system,but because their system was betterthan the one that they beat.Who is to say, then, if there is anyright path to the top, or even to saywhat the top consists of? Obviously thecolleges don’t have more than a partialanswer —otherwise the young wouldnot be so disaffected with an educationthat they consider vapid.Obviouslybusiness does not have the answer —otherwise the young would not be soscornful of its call to be an organizationman.7、Fatherlessness is the mostharmful demographic trend of thisgeneration. It is the leading cause ofthe decline in the well-being of children.It is also the engine driving our mosturgent social problems, from crime toadolescent pregnancy to domesticviolence. Yet, despite its scale andsocial consequences, fatherlessness isfrequently ignored or denied. Especiallywithin our elite discourse, it remains aproblem with no name.Surely a crisis of this scale merits aname and a response. At a minimum, itrequires a serious debate: Why isfatherhood declining? What can bedone about it? Can our society findways to invigorate effective fatherhoodas a norm of male behavior? Yet, todate, our public discussion has beenremarkably weak and defeatist. There isa prevailing belief that not much can oreven should be done to reverse thetrend.10、I have always been intrigued bythe African tribal maxim that it takes avillage to raise a child. In a similarsense, I would argue it takes the wholecampus community — students, faculty,and administrators —to effectivelyeducate a student. If our only goal is toreduce cheating, there are far simplerstrategies we can employ. But if wehave the courage to set our sightshigher, and strive to achieve the goalsof a liberal education, the challenge ismuch greater.Among other things, it isa challenge to develop students whoaccept responsibility for the ethicalconsequences of their ideas and actions.Our goal should not simply be to reducecheating; rather, our goal should be tofind innovative and creative ways touse academic integrity as a buildingblock in our efforts to develop moreresponsible students and, ultimately,more responsible citizens. Ourcampuses must become places wherethe entire “village”—the communityof students, faculty, and administrators—actively works together to achievethis goal.Having decided that sanctions dolittle more than to permanently mar astudent’s record, an increasing numberof schools are taking a moreeducational approach to academicdishonesty. They are striving toimplement strategies that will helpoffending students understand theethical consequences of their behavior.These strategies seem often to bewin-win situations. Faculty are morewilling to report suspected cheating, orto address it themselves, when theyunderstand that educational ratherthan punitive sanctions are likely toresult.。