A good education, in the end

By NICHOLAS BLANCHARD / Guest Columnist

With just one day of lecture remaining in my college career, it finally seems appropriate to question my reason for entering college in the first place. Frankly, it has never come up.

Four years ago, in my waning days of high school, I did not take time to reflect. I knew where I was going: to college.

I, like so many of my peers, accepted college as obligatory, the next rung in my predestined rise to middle-class comfort. Our counselors reinforced the idea, suggesting higher education was hardly avoidable if we wished to have any kind of future. The bachelor’s somehow became the GED. Many pundits say it deigned itself to that position; society did not rise to its level.

In my anecdotal experience, however, this has not been the case. College offers something more than is destined for compulsory education.

In America, we spend about years behind desks, generally without the option of being elsewhere.

Compulsory education is social engineering. I do not mean that nefarious old men are pulling the strings of society. It can be worthwhile, training good and knowledgeable citizens. Unfortunately, it does not always seem to achieve this goal.

College, for me, has been different. From the beginning, the information seemed more dynamic. These were not concrete facts or steadfast rules I was learning, but ideas free for me to interpret. I have tried to develop new ways of thinking, of being skeptical, yet open. I have sought breadth, sometimes even at the expense of depth, just to have a better idea of the scope of a concept. Somewhere along the line, ideas that seemed flatly wrong became interesting options. Science lost its way and found it again. History became as debatable as politics.

Maybe it’s sentiment that makes me think this way now, but I’m grateful for what I’ve learned in college. It has been a large step from what I remember in high school. If higher education really is just a replacement for the compulsory education of old, I might agree that everyone should have an opportunity like this.