Why Education Is Important

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College is seen as job training, but it should be where students learn to think and live well.

Skills matter, but without reflection, they may not lead to a meaningful life.

The humanities reveal how different paths to happiness can lead to success or failure.

When people question the value of a humanities education today, they often ask what appears to be a practical question: “What can you do with it?” This isn’t new. When I went to college more than 20 years ago, people asked me the same question. It didn’t matter that I went to work in real estate finance after college. When I told them this, they just changed the question to, “Why didn’t you major in business?”

Behind this question lies an assumption that education should primarily prepare students to obtain a job, financial security, or a chance to jump one or two levels in socio-economic status. These goals are valid. Students want stability. Parents want reassurance that their children will be able to support themselves. Universities want to demonstrate measurable returns on investment.

However, these aims are also connected to a deeper aspiration that parents want for their children and that societies want for their citizens—happiness. Parents tell me that they want their children to be happy and live good lives. They then tell me that the way to do that is through that high-paying job, financial security, and their chance to jump one or two levels in socio-economic status.

College education has become seen as a step toward a long-term plan for happiness. Yet now that step is being challenged. Companies are beginning to recruit with “no degree required” strategies, offering applicants the opportunity to develop skills necessary to advance and achieve the happiness we all strive for.

When universities justify the humanities........

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