Is Higher Education Important?

For what purpose do young adults across the nation fall into debt by spending thousands of dollars on education? To learn. Learning is an incredible phenomenon; when we expand our knowledge we become better people both individually and as a community. While learning does make us better people, there are flaws that exist in the higher education Americans receive, such as the cost. In the United States, many believe that there is no other choice but to seek higher education after graduating high school. While higher education may make us better people, there are things to consider before one launches into the experience.

In The Idea of Higher Education by Ronald Barnett, he discusses how higher education is not a comfortable ordeal; it is actually quite difficult. It can be a troublesome transition from high school to college because many young people aren’t prepared to have that freedom. Nonetheless, people still want to get a higher education, and for many it’s because they need to. A lot of careers that exist today require people to have attended college, typically for at least four years. If one has a particular dream job and it requires higher education, then that individual will go through any measures it takes to get there. On another hand, many people don’t feel they have a choice. As someone who recently graduated high school, I can say that there was not one time since I learned what college was, that I thought that I wouldn’t be going; it was always engraved in me that when I graduated high school, I would then go to college. It is rooted in our culture in the United States that people need to go to college in order to be successful. Of course, this isn’t entirely untrue; an example being that many of the jobs that only hire people with college degrees are higher-paying. However, there are many cases where highly successful people did not graduate from college, such as Steve Jobs.

In the passage Education for Profit, Education for Democracy, Martha Nussbaum discusses how students who attend colleges and universities are required to take courses that are outside of the degree they are seeking. She says that by doing this, the schools are trying to create better individuals out of students when they leave. This is crucial to the point that Barnett is trying to make in The Idea of Higher Education; how it is not easy to achieve. When students have to take courses outside of their major, it brings them away from their comfort zone but ultimately helps to shape a well-rounded person, which is the intent of the colleges. This can be an “unsettling” experience, as Barnett puts it, because students have to put effort into a class that may not particularly interest them. Barnet also mentions how students come to a realization that, “things could always be other than they are,” and that “no matter how much effort is put in…there are no final answers.” This comes from the way that colleges teach students; there is a lot of research involved that many times does not come with an answer. This can also be an uncomfortable situation to be in as a student, yet students still want to go through this to earn a degree.

Perhaps our country needs to take a deeper look into how achieving higher education can be more affordable, since it truly does help to make people better, more knowledgeable individuals. It is exceptional that our country is able to offer great institutions for people to study and earn degrees; it just comes with obstacles. From what Barnett discussed, about the difficulty of attaining a higher education, and what Nussbaum stated about how it “challenges the mind,” college is not a walk in the park, but it is something to consider for anyone willing to put in the work.