Going to college (Part-3)

     As your college career goes on, you will find that the question of ''what to take'' becomes more important as you  find out more and more about your teachers and the course available.Sir  Richard Livingstone makes a plea for selecting the first-rate in all fields,and a special plea for history and literature; he believes that the purpose of education is to enlarge the mind.Do you see that he is driving at? James Micheline, of South Pacific fame, even seems to feel that the future of education is very likely to be in the hands of the English teachers.This is heady stuff for discussion is an English class-room, but how convincing is his argument?Do you agree with his analysis of the relative value of the sciences and the social studies?  The amusing Phyllis McGinley defends her ''bad'' college education because it allowed  her to educate herself  after she graduated.Most of the effect of  this essay consists of what it does not say about what one should learn in college.If Miss McGinley did not learn much, is it not reasonable to suggest that she should have? Have you been as badly prepared as she was?Do you see any benefits to being educated before rather then after you graduate ? 

              The most serious of all these selections is the last one, by the great educator and sometime president of Harvard, James Conant. Conant believes that the universities have many functions, and that the best education balances them all. Do you see the advantages and weaknesses which is become part of the American educational system? Do you wish to grow in general knowledge, in preparation for your profession, in the extra-curricular areas of student life? Do your plans in any way approximate Conant's ideal education? Will the curriculum you have chosen give you a good education in Conant's terms?

               These essays do not present contradictory views in a debate, nor do they  tell you absolutely what experienced experts believe to be right and wrong in education. They are intended as springboards for ideas you may barely have began t develop. Will college show you how to get rich, or just give you a four-year loaf? Will it help you adjust to living in a difficult and dangerous century, or only upset your belief? Will it be worth the substantial amount of money it is going to cost? What should you get out of college?


See Part-2






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