College? Hrmmmph! What is it good for?
How about a focus on the many ways one can obtain marketable skills and
achieve success without a college educ? It has become more of a social
and symbolic ticket to certain arenas rather than the mark of an
educated citizenry. In other words, argue the opposite, point out the
illusory nature of the "brochure" approach to the college education
business (and indeed, the irony of the business aspect of it). Point
out from there the old-fashioned values/goals of a liberal education
that have been mentioned here such as appreciation of reasoning, arts,
the human range of folly and glory, and a general understanding of the
worlds of science, literature, as well as commerce and politics.
Whether someone comes away with these idealized, fictional correlates of
an education is more of a a crap shoot, but you could make up something
more comforting. Alas, note how positive psychology DOES creep into
all this ;-) Gary Peterson
Saginaw Valley State University
