January 05, 2019 Saturday
Bedtime Story
Ivy League Universities in the Northeastern United States
Dartmouth College whose (now reputed)
alumni was the American polymath Oliver Wendell Holmes Senior, is a private Ivy
League Research University in Hanover, New Hampshire that was established in
1769.
It is probably the least known university
among the eight private universities in the Northeastern United States; there
has always been debate as to where the Northeastern United States begins and
where it ends.
The Northeastern United States is further
subdivided into two large areas of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.
The New England include the six states east
of New York, namely, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire
and Connecticut.
The Mid-Atlantic area comprises of just
three states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
All the states that comprise the
Northeastern United States formed the original Thirteen Colonies that laid the
foundations to the modern super power that we know today.
What are the reasons that these thirteen
colonial states and later the nation that arose out of them did so unimaginably
well?
Much has been written by historians much
more learned than me about the reasons why North America and Europe has been so
successful.
One of the reasons among others is the type
of people that settled there.
I think the success of the colonies rose
out of the fact that the first European settlers to land and settle in New
England were pilgrims from England.
England then as you would know was the
rising Empire rapidly inputting its accruing scientific knowledge into industrialization,
mercantile and colonial competition with other prominent European powers namely
French, Dutch and Spain.
It was these breed of people in spite of
being conservative and religious (remember the bedtime story of ‘The Scarlet Letter’)
who were curious to learn, eager to explore and willing to break away from the
long held and cherished dogmas that would transform this land.
It was probably already in the air of those
times - zeitgeist as it is called more accurately - that nature if probed
wisely would reveal her secrets which then could further be exploited to
harness her immense hidden powers.
Such men are always rare and few in any
society who are capable of breaking away from collective views held by the
society and must have same in these Thirteen Colonies as well.
Had the settlers been Hindus or Islamic pilgrims
of those times I doubt the history that would have evolved from them would been
the same.
By the way, though the term “Ivy League” is
quite popular among the educated elites of all countries not many would have
taken pains to know its exact connotation.
It is generally understood that Ivy League
stands for institutes of universities that are socially elitist with
exceptionally high standards of education.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is Professor
Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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