I write to comment on your editorial in last week's STUDENT, "Our Brother's Savior. What "has an Amherst education … always been about" (The Amherst Student, Sept. 12. 2007)? Is it "serving" or "saving" our community? Are those who believe it may be something else necessarily "cynical, …, self-interest[ed], [apathetic]"? This debate is now a part of our campus conversations. This writer believes that the 30+ months that America's youth spend on our university and college campuses is the best and only time our society provides to teach them how to think critically, read subtly and write convincingly; in other words, to teach them how to question authority and authorities. That is why I, and many of my generation, became teachers. This is why we groan a bit when hyper-partying, obsessive athleticism and early careerism take time and attention from those goals.

The new Center for Community Engagement is an admirable, morally justified and educationally innovative initiative. Those aren't the issues. The issues are time and emphasis. Many of us feel that we do not have enough of the former, nor do we hear enough of the latter to support our efforts at teaching thinking, reading and writing.

So, should you find a bit of foot-dragging, amongst students and faculty, to the clarion call of service to the community, please give us the benefit of the doubt: we too seek and have a mission, and our way of "enlightening the world" should be, and can be, just as rewarding as others.