The Real Value of an Education

Lets talk about higher education, and even lower education. Scanning the recent NY Times there seems to be a debate going about the "value" of higher education. As in, is it worth the price tag.

Then recently I heard a radio show on OPB about the crunching demands of AP classes, and how some schools were thinking of abolishing them. And one college said they weren't using those scores for admission. They spoke of an "arms race" in education with AP being the latest military weapon that was required. At what cost.

Now just wait a minute here. I can talk about the value of my education. Including my AP education.

If it weren't for attending college at one of those pricey back-East schools, I never would have learned existential philosophy. Or that Taiwanese citizens have an obligation to serve in the military. Or that people who only spend a semester in France can really be snobs (at least for awhile). And about the second law of thermodynamics and all its applications (mostly to work settings, to make you compliant). Or what a progressive drinking party is like (ok it was the 70s). Or the absolute beauty and peacefulness of a campus in the summer, or the narrow hallways of the endless stacks of the library, or how the waves looked on Lake Michigan in the winter - frozen mid-curl.

Well I studied math so that really wasn't part of my learning. But all these other experiences made me who I am right now. Was it worth it? Yes. Could I have gotten these experiences at PCC? Those who claim you can save money by attending a 2-year school then transferring are missing the life-transforming and cultural aspects of college. PCC was never on the radar for me (no offense to anyone, it is great for some people).

What about AP courses? Maybe back-in-the-day it was as easy as getting into an ivy league school, you just did it. I was in AP Calculus and what seemed to me like remedial English my senior year (lets learn about apostrophes today!). This was after several years of the more experimental variety of English classes, such as creative writing, which has also made me the Harriet blogger I am today. The AP classes I took - Calc and French where we read actual books in another language, also made me who I am today.

Lets look at the 2000's. My kids crunched their way through as many AP classes as they could (which was about 4 or 5 at their h.s.) I never learned about U.S. History, but they did, the AP way. I never learned Economics in h.s., but they did. And literature -never even heard of Gilgamesh. And I saved their reading lists since I figure it is never too late to get caught up on the classics.

Did they do it to get into college? Maybe. But from my view, they also actually learned about the world.

Does everything have to be a ticket to the next station in life? Or can education be a value of its own. Can we strive to be literate citizens who know where Burundi is, and know about supply and demand, and whether a chair is really there?