what are the most important ideals for you?
 

q: what traditions or ideals mean the most to you? what do you think tke needs to return to?

i've always thought our knights of classic lore history is one that should be embraced more. we have a very literate and knowledge based beginning. we should be stressing not only academics, but the importance of the pursuit of knowledge itself.

I would hope all TKE'S embrased love, charity, and esteem at least.

right, but why are they important to you? other than them being the 3 big ideals of tke.

They are important because if you embrase them you will have a strong chapter and get along with all your brothers no matter what happens and how different each person is.

amen, brother. my life has been more influenced by love and esteem than any other belief that i hold. being an advisor, nothing is more rewarding than seeing someone's life-views changed by what tke teaches us.

I feel that we should all embrace the charity virtue more. My chapter especially needs to work on the "slow to reprove him of his faults" part of the DOP. People can be quick to name, quick to label, and all too quick to judge.

::steps up on soapbox:: people call tekes "geeks" or "blanket bidders" or other insulting things like that; but I doubt they realize that part of the DOP that deliberately instructs us to find the good aspects in a person and to try not to pigeonhole him the minute we meet him. we embrace diversity and search for that uniqueness that will benefit the fraternity in more ways than having a warm body that drinks beer. ::steps off soapbox::

Charity, my personal favorite of the triple obligations.

i love this topic... gmu, i've seen the flipside of the tke geek stereotype. my chapter has become respected in a couple circles on campus as being known as the every man's fraternity. since we don't look for cookie-cutter greeks, we fit into all the groups. its nice that you can rush based on who a person is, and not what he is.

TKE stereotypes
 

As a matter of fact, my Irish friend, there is a new rhyme for teke's at your (our) school: "If you can't go greek go TKE".

Maybe this is b/c I never hear any other fraternity promote their values, but it seems like no other organization has any. Having the DOP to refer to and learn from seems to give tekes something more to strive for in college along with their education.

I'm sure other organizations have their secret words and phrases but besides the bond that that provides does the pursuit of values bind them in their 4 (or more) years?

jughead,
hate to break it to you, but that is older than the teke=geek one. a friend of mine used to say it all the time (jokingly of course). there are millions of them though (i was going to write a couple, but i'm guessing that will piss somebody off). i think we've all seen that snazzy jingles don't do much to dissuade potential rushees.
second point: i've always thought that tke was quite different from all the other greek organizations. all of my friends from back home went greek and they don't have the closeness that i've seen in my chapter. i can't speak for all tekes, but the ideals and the way we were taught to respect them has created something above and beyond what it means to be greek.