They say it is good to learn new skills as you get older. Well here goes. I am about to arrive in New Haven, Connecticut, to teach as a senior fellow at Yale University. Last time I taught anything to a class it was at Sunday school more than half a century ago. Arriving late at night I see little of the town but then next morning when I draw up the blinds – wow, it’s just like Oxford! In a sense it was meant to be, as Yale’s buildings were to some extent modelled on Oxford and Cambridge. One thing is very different though: there is only one student bar in the university. In my day at Oxford every college had its own bar. Is this a sign of the sobriety of the USA or the sobriety of the young today?
The first afternoon, I am given a guided tour of Yale by Josh, an undergraduate who will be in my class. He tells me how Yale was established. Its key benefactor was Elihu Yale, an official with the East India Company who was persuaded to provide support by his friend Jeremiah Dummer. Perhaps it was for the best that Elihu lent his name to the university – who would want to attend Dummer University? In the Old Campus there is a statue of Theodore Dwight Woolsey. I notice that one toecap is worn and shiny – students rub it for good luck. I tell Josh about the statue of Winston Churchill in Members’ Lobby in the House of Commons and that new MPs rub his toe before making their maiden speech.
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