Knox in the News

From the Register-Mail:

Favorite story I did this year: My piece on the final weeks and days of Tim Heimann’s career as Knox College men’s basketball coach. Heimann was terrific to deal with and gave unrestricted access to himself and his players. It was clear that those who played for him certainly thought of him as more than a coach…..

Best interview: Knox coach Rob Purlee. He holds nothing back.

Best quote I got this year: “Remember, there’s a lot of colon.” — Former Knox coach Tim Heimann on a surgery to remove part of his organ.

From WGIL radio:

The Obama trail includes Knox College, where Obama gave the Commencement address in June of 2005, and four other sites. Jan Kostner, deputy director of the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, says travelers are encouraged to explore some of the sites.

Kostner says it requires just a few days to take in the new Barack Obama Presidential Trail.

“These are very easy, affordable, interesting getaways. (They are) not just for the families, there’s also groups of people who really love history and culture and our heritage, so they’re perfect ways to market to that group as well.”

From Best Life Magazine:

Recent research links marketing and its sidekick, consumerism, to an increased risk for a broad spectrum of ills, including conflicts at school, conflicts with parents, psychological distress, indifference toward others, and a disregard for the world itself. Exposing a child to high levels of marketing, in other words, is a great way to make a child unhappy, unsuccessful, and unlikable. Most of us think of marketing as ads, but with shows having become toys having become brands, the most innocent of stuffed toys is no longer as innocent as it seems….

….”To me, consumerism is the more insidious problem,” says Tim Kasser, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and author of The High Price of Materialism. “It’s less obviously seen. It’s the water in which we swim.” Scientific studies show an association between materialism in children and impairment on a host of markers of children’s physical, social, and psychological well-being. “Children who are high on scales of materialism report being less happy, less satisfied with life, more depressed, and more anxious. They even have lower self-esteem,” he says.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Every year at this time, I wrestle with the tendency to overindulge.

As a parent, there’s a certain joy in giving, in seeing the packages pile up and in surprising the kids. But excess also runs counter to the message we try to send all year, that money doesn’t fall from the sky and we should buy and consume thoughtfully. The challenge is particularly acute this year, when many of our budgets are tighter and we are, or feel, poorer than just a few months ago.

So how do we enjoy the season, keeping both the joy and our morals intact? Here are some suggestions for parents:

…..In addition, “you don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a happy Christmas,” says Tim Kasser, a psychology professor at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. He says his household gives a lot of coupons, like vouchers for extra TV time or promises to do cleaning chores or wash dishes. The coupons are so well used that Dr. Kasser sometimes wishes he instead bought his wife earrings and spared himself the extra household work.

From the Register-Mail:

One local girl’s dream of becoming a professional ballerina is one step closer to coming true.

Jaidah Terry of Galesburg, 17, leaves Monday for San Francisco and a spot in Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet’s two-year training academy. She studied dance in Monmouth and at Knox College before beginning three years ago with the Peoria Ballet Academy.

Jaidah spent her summer in the company’s summer intensive program, at which time they asked her to enroll in the training program.

“They are my dream company,” she said of LINES.

From the Register-Mail:

Vitalist Theatre — co-owned by Knox College faculty members Liz Carlin-Metz and Robin Metz — quickly has become a prominent force on the Chicago theater scene. Now with its latest show, a holiday extravaganza, the theater team is reaching out to ensure that cast and audience members alike are exposed to new experiences.

“Anung’s First American Christmas” is taken from an oral story from the Ojibway tribe that was told to Knox College alumnus Carl Nordgren. After hearing the story, Nordgren wrote it down and turned it into a novella.

Last year Nordgren was a visiting professor of business at Knox. During that time, he sought the help of his former mentor, Knox creative writing professor Robin Metz, to edit the story. Metz shared it with his wife, Knox theater professor Carlin-Metz, who is co-founder and director of Vitalist Theatre.

Immediately the two knew it was a story that needed to be told as a play.