Nicholas Francis Bellotto – 50th Reunion Essay

Nicholas Francis Bellotto

6807 36th Avenue NE

Seattle, WA 98115

bellotto.gill@comcast.net

Spouse(s): Kathleen Gill (1982)

Child(ren): Giancarlo Bellotto (1986)

College: Davenport

Over the last half-century, whenever the subject of my years at Yale came up, I was often asked what I had studied. When I answered that I was a French major, the next question would invariably be: “What were you planning to do with that?” In other words, if I didn’t intend to make a career out of teaching French, eating in French restaurants, or being French, what was the point? My attempts to explain what a liberal arts education used to mean in the not-too-distant past always failed.

In his 2004 work Don’t Think of an Elephant! George Lakoff answered my questioners better than I ever could:

“The point of a classic liberal education was manyfold: to develop one’s mind and critical faculties in general, to teach about the world so as to open a world of possibilities in life, to provide skills for learning whatever one needs to learn…

“Because of the runaway loss of satisfying work, education has radically changed. More and more students see education as a direct route to either wealth or a satisfying work life—and are therefore getting ‘educated’ for today’s jobs, without the intangible but vitally important personal riches of a liberal education. That is educational robbery, because a liberal education opens up possibilities for one’s entire life that an orientation toward today’s jobs does not—especially when today’s jobs may not be there in the future.”

At 17, when I entered with the class of 1969, I hadn’t charted my future. I don’t think I realized it so clearly at the time, but what I wanted most from my studies was a liberal arts education. I was fortunate enough to attend Yale over 50 years ago.