.png)
On the first day of class, a professor asks her students: “Who is here to get a degree so that they can get a good job?” Invariably, 95% of the class raises their hand, hopeful eyes towards their well-paying future.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. All elders hope that the next generation can live more comfortably than themselves by adopting better jobs. In this sense, college acts as a place of certification. Regardless of whether one wants to become a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, an engineer, or a teacher, the proper qualifications must all be obtained from a college education. At the end of the undergraduate experience is a red stamp certifying that student to higher education or the job market. Doubtless, there is great utility in this. Professional careers absolutely need those qualifications, and many might reasonably be suspicious of people without such a degree.
But notice the difference between this modern education and the goals of older universities—to educate students in a classical and liberal education. Universities today perhaps resemble trade schools more than the colleges of yore. That doesn’t mean modern education is worse than in the past (it is probably a great deal better), but the change does evoke two questions: Why has the shift away from such prevalent liberal education occurred? And does it matter if that type of education has begun to disappear?
As to the first question, I ought to leave that to a historian or an economist. The rise of industrialization likely meant that college became more of a training than a wide education. And the development of a modern economy probably meant that specialization in a limited field is ideal.
Industrialization and a modern economy are a good thing, I could never dispute that. But I do dispute that the effects these forces have had on education are not important. Education always has been and always will be a liberal experience. To step beyond the jaded terminology of the word today, liberal simply means free, and that is what education ought to do for us. Scientific expertise is indispensable and highly impressive, but drawn too narrowly, does it truly free oneself? Does it allow one to live free of the unnecessary burdens of society? Does it let one think as an individual and not as a mob? Does it let one seek goodness? Justice? I know very well that no theory of physics could ever inform someone of the lifestyle they ought to lead, no matter how beautiful the science is. Yet still, there exists widespread neglect for these important questions among those seeking only qualifications from their university. They can only be pursued in the soft sciences and liberal arts.
I have already written a blog in the past concerning the importance of mathematics and the sciences for all people, even philosophers. I do not feel the need to reiterate the unique and dire importance of those subjects for all individuals to acquaint themselves with. Instead, here, I draw attention to the other side which ought to be considered.
The defenses which people use for justifying an ignorance of liberal education are not particularly compelling either. Among these are that they aren’t good with subjects outside their field; that they don’t have time for them; or that they simply don’t care. But if you are not good at thinking about those things which are truly important and which would enrich your life, what reason could there be for delaying the start? If you can’t make the time, then when else would you? If you can’t care about these things, then what justification do you have for anything you do?
I believe nobody—no matter their profession or education—ought to drift through life aimlessly. There is no greater shame and loss of life than to have been a slave to the most mundane aspects of everyday living and to have lived through ninety years on autopilot. Nothing summarizes my thoughts better than an inscription written in our own McConnell Center seminar room: “Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.”
Thomas Hulse is a McConnell Scholar in the class of 2023. He is studying physics and political science at the University of Louisville.