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Let's Not Lose
Edcation's Deeper Value By Loyd Gray It’s one of those nagging questions that won’t go away. You get a good education so that you can get a good job. You get a good job so you can make good money. You make good money so you can spend it, or save it, or invest it so that you can make more money so that you can spend it eventually. (And maybe, if there’s any left over, give some of it away.) OK, so what’s the point? What is the purpose of all this? What gives it meaning? Anybody with the slightest degree of self awareness knows that the cycle above doesn’t cut it, deep down. The quest for fulfillment through material riches is as old as civilization, and it always falls short. Yet the emphasis these days on education as a means to material wealth trumps all other considerations. We have become accustomed to viewing education, especially college, as having little intrinsic worth other than what it returns to us in material dividends. Nothing’s wrong, of course, with wanting to better oneself economically, and people who don’t prepare adequately for entry into the job market do themselves and society a disservice. But when education – particularly higher education – is viewed strictly as an economic commodity, it is cut adrift from its moorings and loses its deeper meaning. Learning how to make a lot of money and learning how to make a life are two entirely different things, and college education was once more about the latter than the former. Rapid technological change and its accompanying economic pressures have changed that, and yet there are still colleges – and departments and divisions within larger universities – that encourage wrestling with the big questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What are the elements of a life well lived? What do I owe to myself, to others and to the world? What is the ultimate purpose of the economic prosperity we all seek, individually and collectively? “In spite of the movement toward technical colleges, specialized programs and big brand-name universities, traditional liberal arts colleges – and the values to which they are committed – continue to prosper,” writes Kathryn Mohrman, president of Colorado College and chairwoman of the Annapolis Group, a consortium of liberal arts colleges. Mohrman suggests that a liberal arts education, far from being an anachronism, may actually be an advantage today, and not just for the reason that it helps shape well-rounded human beings. The advantage lies in the very nature of the current economy. Technical skills quickly become outdated today. The specialized degree that prepares a student for the hot job this year may not be worth much five or 10 years down the road. “The schools, majors and professions most in demand today could be just another wave, a trend that has already or will soon reach its crest,” Mohrman points out. A liberal arts education, on the other hand – broad, challenging, probing, questioning – teaches creative thinking that adapts well to change. It grounds students in study of ancient truths and truth-seekers, in the historic aspirations of humanity and the highs and lows of human nature, and in the fundamental precepts of how the world works. The best liberal arts colleges and university liberal arts curriculums inculcate an ethic of community service and higher purpose with that knowledge, producing not only thinkers but leaders whose vision extends beyond a bottom-line-for-its-own-sake mentality. In other words, they keep alive the notion that education is about the whole person, not just the (ironically) Marxist notion of man as purely economic animal. The push in recent years to emphasize the direct link between education and the economy has been in part a strategic thrust by pro-education forces to marshal public and business support for greater investment in education. It is true and necessary as far as it goes. But as we produce people capable of getting and keeping better jobs – of making more money – we have to be careful not to lose the capacity to see the point of it all. People are more than cogs in an economic machine or consumers of goods and services. We should value the kind of education that reminds us of that truth. PREVIOUS PAGE | PAGE 1 OF 1 | NEXT ARTICLE |
