As Allan Goodman alluded to in yesterday’s entry, this is commencement season in the United States; a time when graduating students, their families, and university officials all gather to celebrate achievements and life course transitions.
The images below are Wordle graphics of two commencement speeches given last weekend. Wordle clouds give “greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text“, offering us a simple insight into the nature of the messages that were delivered.
The first word cloud is derived from the remarks of US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan who spoke at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (a large public research university), while the second cloud is derived from the remarks of the University of Chicago philosopher Martha Nussbaum who spoke at Colgate University (a small private liberal arts college).
Note: Martha Nussbaum’s new book (Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2010) clearly provides the basis for her remarks.
Kris Olds
GlobalHigherEd 
This is a very dynamic presentation of the general contents of both commencement addresses. I have to say that based on this cloud, I would probably have enjoyed Martha Nussbaum’s address. The cloud depicts the link between culture, education, and humanity. I am a EdD student at Walden University and have learned a great deal about this link as well during the past 2 years. The global responsibility of all educators is to incorporate the arts and culture into all education.
-Serena Huggins