Halfway through my college career, a question pops up in my mind and refuses to be satisfied with answers that once seemed satisfactory. Why exactly do human beings spend four years and a substantial amount of money to go to this institution referred to as a college, where they proceed to engage in something that on the surface is neither the most pleasurable activity available nor the most useful?
It wasn't always like this. Back in high school, the role of the college in society was narrowly but well defined in my mind. Society used knowledge about the workings of its environment to shape that environment to a form that better suited itself. The scientist discovered that knowledge; and the engineer, the doctor and the architect applied it to manufacture cars, heal sicknesses and build homes. Entrepreneurs, lawyers, politicians and teachers all fit into this neat picture of society using knowledge to further its material ends. The purpose of education was clear -- to furnish individuals with this knowledge in order to enable them to carry out a function in society, be it manufacturing cars, or healing the sick, or building homes.
I was unaware of it while making the decision to attend a liberal arts college, but the concept of a liberal arts education, with its focus on skills rather than on knowledge, was new to me. I essentially treated the opportunity to go to a liberal arts college as a means to furthering knowledge with a view to performing one of the aforementioned functions in society and being duly reimbursed for it.
But being surrounded by many students and faculty who obviously do not treat college primarily as a means to the gaining or imparting of useful knowledge -- as is evidenced by their whole-hearted and focused participation in fields like literature, music and philosophy as more than a pleasant diversion -- and having more than once come close to abandoning the pursuit of gainful knowledge in the sciences in favor of the more pleasurable activity of reading fiction and writing about it, I'm forced to treat the matter with more gravity.
Everyone is aware of the standard defense of a liberal education, where the practice of spending the vast majority of one's time with the humanities with only a glance at the sciences is not only possible, but widespread. There are a lot of people in the vicinity of a liberal arts college who are quick to convince the occasional doubter of the importance of skills over knowledge. They tell us how a liberal arts education provides its patrons with a useful set of tools with which to approach an uncertain future where knowledge is quickly outdated, but where skills always remain in demand.
I am ever suspicious that these people who are quick to put us at ease either haven't thought about the issue hard enough, or have vested interests in establishing the relevance of the liberal arts education in today's world, or are too deeply involved in the culture of a liberal arts institution to study the issue in a disinterested manner.
What they are saying could very well be true. It is far too complicated an issue to have an easy answer. And I, being part of an institution that prides itself on its liberal arts curriculum, rejoice at the possibility of it being true. However, I am also a firm believer in the power of the human voice. If we keep hearing about something in a positive light long enough, we eventually come to firmly believe in its validity. As a case in point, I disliked much of modern art before I got here. But once here, I heard people praise it and debate its fine points and I found myself a convert.
Human beings strive to create an aura about whatever it is that they are doing which makes it appear more important than it actually is. A large part of what architectural critics, literary critics, art critics and ambassadors of science like Carl Sagan do, is creating that special veneer. A very good example is haute couture. The whole spectacle appears amusing to the uninitiated. Yet to those initiated into its rites and ceremonies, rules and codes, the whole thing takes on a life of its own. Indeed billions of dollars are made on it, and millions are spent on ensuring its survival.
There is nothing really wrong with this scenario. It may very well be a good thing that human beings are able to create their own realities and its accompanying goals, and find meaning and happiness pursuing them. And this reality is as valid as any we will ever know. But no matter how many philosophy classes I take, I will never be comfortable contemplating the possibility that our desire for an education at a liberal arts college may be along the lines of our desire for a jacket from Ralph Lauren's Spring Collection.
