Tom Fryska
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The longer I’m at Butler University, the more I realize the irony of college education.
Students are often over-burdened with unnecessary extracurricular activities, needlessly juggling several majors and minors and struggling with the demands of a working life. They are less and less concerned with actually learning in their classes and more with simply getting A’s.
But this in itself is not the true problem. It’s rather only a symptom of a broader approach that’s being applied to the institution of higher learning.
More and more often, students are looking at college as just another hoop to jump through in order to move on to a high-paying career. If they do look to get anything at all out of their educational experience, it’s a narrow set of skills which can be applied to a specific occupation.
What’s wrong here is that this career-optimization focus is coming at the cost of that quintessential American strength which has been the force behind our innovation, our ability to adapt and our nation’s ultimate position in the world: the ability to think.
The reasons behind this change are understandable, if slightly misguided. When individuals examine the growing costs of higher education in conjunction with the tightening of the job market, the natural decision is to adapt a cost-benefit-analysis perspective. That perspective, in turn, stipulates that the entire reason for pursuing a higher education is simply for résumé building, networking and the assurance of a career.
The institutions for higher learning respond to this demand in a similar manner. The liberal arts are paid cursory lip service, while the entire process of moving through college becomes streamlined and career-oriented. Students are processed, like in secondary educational institutions, to be part of a cog in a machine, to use their degrees or their skills to fulfill some specialized profession.
But moving the pursuit of higher education toward a Ford-esque assembly line production model is nothing short of an egregious mistake. On the global scene, China and India can both churn out workers from their institutions of higher learning at a faster pace and lower price than we can. What’s more, those workers can be paid a fraction of the cost that we pay a similarly-trained employee in the United States.
Simply said, in a globalized world, trying to compete with China and India in those kinds of fields is an absurd proposition.
What has sustained America in the past has not been our ability to create automatons that can do jobs that are at risk of being outsourced. Rather, it has been our cultivation of the essentials of the liberal arts: free thought, creativity and the ability to connect the dots across various disciplines and concepts.
This trend is reflected in the industries that drive progress in our country. It’s the reason why such esteemed companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft are all based in the United States.
In the same vein of thought, the future of the American economy does not rest on the creation of workers who can function as widgets in a machine. Now more than ever before, it relies on adaptable intellectuals who are willing to take risks, be bold and become entrepreneurs that champion new causes and ideas.
It is through the creation of these ideas and the innovation of new technologies, (such as the green technologies movement or information technology), that growth in America can be sustained.
This understanding is the key to America’s future. While math, careerism and networking all have their place in education, it is the foundations of the liberal arts which act as the primary instigator for the kind of innovation and creativity that drive economic growth and create new idea-based industries. And as Thomas Friedman explained in “The World is Flat,” “There is no limit to the number of idea-generated jobs in the world.” To cede the creation of these types of jobs is to cede the very basis of our economy to other nations.
Fixing this decline in higher education and returning to the heart of the liberal arts is a task that requires the synthesis of many disparate groups. Universities, students and the federal government are all required to take action to alter the status quo to one more conductive to progress.
This means universities and the federal government need to work together on making higher education affordable for students again.
Universities need to take a step back and find a proper balance between advocating for professional programs and nurturing the liberal arts.
On the other hand, students must also be held accountable. The focus should shift from simply surviving classes toward actively immersing themselves in the material. The piling of superfluous responsibilities should not only give way to the simplicity of doing less, but also getting so much the more out of it. The obdurate focus on only mastering a specific skill set should yield to the realization that having the ability to think in a creative, analytic manner is essential for finding a place in the globalized job market.
In the end, college isn’t just about getting a diploma. It’s about learning and thinking. To forget this fundamental truth would be nothing short of tragic.
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