The Purpose of College - Fall 2022 - CORE Capstone All Majors

The Purpose of College You are almost done (with the Core Curriculum). Now that you are almost at the halfway point of your college career, this module will invite you to reflect on the purpose of college. Why College? If you ask many undergraduates why they came to college, they will give a simple answer: to get a job. However, colleges have not always seen themselves as job training centers. For most of the history of higher education in the United States, colleges were often elite institutions attended mostly by students from wealthy families. People did not go to college to make money. They went to college because they had money. One notable exception was public colleges that taught Agriculture and Engineering or were designed to educate teachers as this was a profession that required advanced education. Georgia Southern, for example, was originally founded in 1906 as the First District Agricultural & Mechanical School but then shifted within a few decades to become the Georgia Teachers College. In the middle of the twentieth century, increasing numbers of people from working and middle-class backgrounds began to see a college education as a route to social mobility. A liberal arts curriculum provided an intensive education in reading, writing, and scientific reasoning that prepared students for a range of professions. During this period, the number of students expanded dramatically. In 1940, fewer than 5 percent of Americans had a college degree. That number has grown to around 35 percent. This left the purpose of college unclear. Is college a place to pursue learning for its own sake, or should it be to gain marketable skills? Or, is it possible that learning for the love of learning might provide the kind of well-rounded education that could prepare students for a range of life and career possibilities? CORE 2000 will ask you to consider the purpose of college by reflecting on the interconnection between the core curriculum, your major area of study, your future career, and your ethical responsibilities as a global citizen in a diverse world. Live and Learn In his essay "Live and Learn: Why We Have College," Louis Menand discusses different possible functions of higher education. According to Menand, people often have conflicting ideas about why college is valuable. He identifies at least two competing models for higher education: Meritocratic. In this view, "College is, essentially, a four-year intelligence test." According to Menand, people who hold this view see colleges as places that identify the students who have the greatest aptitude for particular skills so that it can funnel those students toward appropriate careers. The assumption is that students with the highest grades are best prepared for certain jobs. Democratic. In this view, "College exposes future citizens to to material that enlightens and empowers them, whatever careers they end up choosing." Unlike the meritocratic view, the democratic view is concerned that students who focus only on career skills will not get the skills they need to be informed citizens. According to Menand, higher education can sometimes be confused because many institutions work with both models at once. Colleges are "competitive" institutions that reward students for good grades, but they also seek to educate as many students as possible to promote the public good. He also notes that some critics of higher education have become concerned that social and financial pressures on colleges have made it difficult for them to achieve either of these goals. What Good is College? As you read the Menand essay, consider what college has a role to play in a democracy. Ask yourself: Does college serve a public good? Are you learning anything that has helped to make you a more informed citizen? Does college have any purpose in your life apart from getting a job? How might your major within the Arts and Humanities contribute to understanding a diverse world? Would it be beneficial to a democracy to expand access to higher education? Continue to the next section.