Dear Journal,
These are disturbing times. Higher education in America, a treasure too long taken for granted and long gone unprotected, is on the verge of becoming utterly useless or merely a method of indoctrination to convince my generation of the validity of liberal politics, agnosticism, and secularism.
I recently was given the privilege of attending an academic conference addressing this very issue. It has become quite apparent that classical liberal education has become, and will continue to be, nothing short of utilitarian. Forget the notion of expanding one’s mind simply for the sake of one’s mind, or to learn about the surrounding world, or the God who created it—not that the utterance of the Deity is even tolerated any longer—but we should soon get used to the concept of college as simply a stepping stone to job placement.
To be frank, attending college or university in America is simply the modus operandi to begin a paying career. Academia has been reduced to a glorified job training service—heaven forbid we should do on-the-job training—and universities are all full of students who have no real motivation to attend, much less study, but are there simply because it has been pounded into their brains by the public education system that they have to attend if they ever want to get a job.
So, rather than develop children’s technical skills that they display in their more mature years of adolescence by way of apprenticeship or some similar method, we force nearly 70% of public high school graduates into the higher education system, 50-60% of which, according to some studies, would not attend if they were not “required.” Thus, we are filling the halls of academia, a noble calling deserved by many, but not most, individuals, with young people that do not demonstrate any particular scholarly gifts or inclinations. We are creating institutions with a watered down study program in order to accommodate less-than-prepared pupils in order to pass them through the system in order to get them out into the job market in the most expedient manner.
For fear of sounding elitist, allow me to share a disclaimer: Academia, in an ideal world, should serve as preparatory ground for individuals who for their life long career seek to be academics, or enter a profession that demands extensive higher education training, such as physician, lawyer, or minister. Academia (the “university”, if you will) is merely a specialized institution of training for these individuals, the same way a trade school is an institution for specialized training for those seeking expertise in electrical works, computer technology, plumbing, etc. Their preparation will make them an expert in their related field the same way my theological studies would make me an expert in my particular fields. My particular gifts and interests incline me to my profession. I would not for one minute put on the pretense of knowing the first thing about plumbing. When in need, I would seek out a skilled plumber—one who willingly went through his training to be a skilled professional. If this plumber is gifted in plumbing and not academics, why in the world would I care if my plumber had obtained a Bachelor’s degree in business marketing, as long as he does an adequate job in fixing my toilet?!
Yet this is where our society stands today: the standard qualification for getting any job is that an individual must possess a Bachelor’s degree of some sort. It might be entirely irrelevant to the career one currently holds (such as the restaurant manager who holds a degree in biology), but as long as they have that degree, clearly they are qualified for an above average blue-collar position.
Based on current trends, it is not terribly difficult to postulate what the educational system will look like for my children’s generation. More than likely, the system will continue to be full of students don’t care to be present, and teachers who really don’t care much to teach. The appeal of tenure in higher education in our own day has created university professors that, rather than engage and educate their students, spend countless hours buried in their office doing hours of research, and pass off the actual responsibilities of teaching to their graduate students. What’s more, the research done is not simply to benefit the academic community, but as a necessary evil to obtain tenure (which has become necessary in most university systems for job security). This trend annually creates nearly two million articles published in academic journals costing the system nearly $50,000 per article for publication, yet these articles are full of mere “laughable academic jargon” as Naomi Schaefer Riley aptly noted.
Indeed, should current trends continue, the soul of the American university is bound to be empty. The study of any given discipline is, in all reality, the study of the general revelation of God and His creation, albeit these disciplines tell forth this revelation in a variety of unique ways. But I wouldn’t expect my children to learn this in their university experience. The aforementioned notion is all but banned from emphasis the nation’s major universities—a far cry from the origins of the university in Europe, where the academic mission was the pursuit of Truth, for the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom (consider the beginnings of Oxford, Cambridge, or the American Harvard, Yale, and Princeton Universities).
To alter these sad developments would necessitate a radical re-realization of the purpose of higher education and its existence as an extension of the general revelation of God Almighty. If the utilitarian understanding of academia, coupled with professors advancing a militant secularist agenda, is ever to reverse its course, it is going to take a massive grassroots effort on the part of the people of God to change the hearts and minds of America’s people in understanding what liberal education is and what purpose it should serve. Indeed, this hope of affecting the souls of man, with the purpose of affecting the soul of the university, will require far more than our own efforts can accomplish. We would be most wise to beseech the help of the One whom, in the very process of education, we desire to glorify should we ever expect to be victorious.
Whenever Simon Cowell gives a brutally honest assessment of an American Idol performance, all of America watches the response of the contestant.
