Over the past few weeks, I have been fortunate to hear from many alumni, including quite a few from the Class of 2015, as they return to or start college. In every case, they tell me how well-prepared they are for college, and how surprised they are that many of their new classmates did not do the same kind of work in high school that they did. Their emails and texts express appreciation for the education they received at Bosque; as I tell them, we are equally grateful for their time spent with us during the middle and high school years. The alumni sound excited to be taking engaging classes, even if in some cases, the work is a repeat of their coursework at Bosque.
Class of 2015
I thought of our alumni Bobcats as I read an essay in The New York Times last week by an NYU philosophy and law professor, Kwame Anthony Appiah. In this piece, “The College Crossroads,” Appiah throws his hat in the ring of the debate over the role of a college education today. For the purpose of argument, Appiah dichotomizes college education between “Utility U.” and “Utopia U.” At Utility U, the main reason for a college education is the leg up it will give someone in the increasingly competitive global marketplace. Attendees at Utility U. measure the value of a post-secondary education in terms of one’s post-graduate earning potential. With the cost of a college education today, this kind of thinking is completely understandable.
At Utopia U, on the other hand, college is about broadening the mind and enriching the soul through a “liberal education.” In this case, the function of college is to teach students to have a critical mindset and to engage in the life of the mind. As Appiah says, “If Utility U. is concerned with value, Utopia U. is concerned with values.” This view of education resonates in its nostalgia for an earlier time when students and professors grappled with important texts, asked big questions, and students argued late into the night over consequential philosophical statements.
Hopefully, our children can have a college education that combines the best elements of Utility U. and Utopia U. They can open their minds and spread their wings in the safety of a collegiate atmosphere while learning skills that will prepare them for life after they exit the ivory tower. Maybe there does not have to be a sharp distinction between what students learn for love or for work—maybe they can explore all aspects of their personality and graduate college with both their passions and job prospects intact.
As Appiah says at the end of his piece, “Like most of the students I’ve had since, they learned that what you can do and who you can be—the qualities of your skills and of your soul—are two separate questions that aren’t quite separable. And that college was a pretty good place to work out some answers to both.”
