Professor Responds To ‘Angry Graduate Just Wrote This Letter To His University’
22nd May 2014
Dear Angry Graduate,
Your rant about the cost of higher education might be the best indicator
of why you are finding it so difficult to get a job. Your lack of
understanding of the role of education, the assumption that education
guarantees you a job, and the idea that education somehow causes bubble
economics shows that you are sadly mistaken. You managed to get a degree
but failed to become an educated person.
Education is a dialogue between teacher and students, student and
student, academy and the world. We focus on qualitative measures of
meaning, purpose, relationship, art, thought, and belief. We value
person and life as who we are, not what we do. Our goal is to shape the
way we think, looking beyond the superficial gains of power and
influence to see consequences and effects on the meaning of being human.
Education acts as a check and balance system to political and corporate
greed and corruption. Education strives for greater equality as it
measures success by ideas and expression rather than method and
production. It fosters intelligent leadership through critical thinking.
It demands self-reflection as a motivation to evaluate and change, and
offers a spectrum of knowledge that becomes a laser of invention and
creativity.
It is an expensive proposition. You want to know where your measly
$16,000 a semester went? It went to the library to help pay the
$500,000--$1 million a year bill for online data services that allow you
to stay in your room and explore the world. It went to the $2 million
electric bill and the $3 million water bill. It paid for security,
secretaries, equipment, maintenance, improvements, food services,
internet access, books, furniture, gym equipment, student services, and
cleaning services. There is still the small issue of salaries,
insurance, seminars, speakers, labs, student workers, support services,
and research.
I, like many others who work here, receive marginal salaries. I work
three jobs to pay my bills. I live a simple lifestyle, and I have little
money in reserve. But I believe that the good of society and the
potential of my students are worth the investment and the gift of my
life. Education is not free and it is not easy. Contrary to the opinions
of some students, college is not about how much one can drink, and
party, and play games because no one is there to tell me otherwise.
Education is about responsibility, picking courses and professors that
help you, and engaging the world in a dialogue about how we can achieve
the highest expressions of what it means to be human. If you failed to
realize that and if you failed to take advantage of what was right in
front of you, that is not the fault or failing of higher education. If
you wanted an education that promised a job, you should have gone to
trade school.
So, grow up. Realize how fortunate you are, how much you have learned,
and if you are as smart as you think you are, prove it. Engage the world
and make a difference. If nothing else, help the next generation learn
so that we can still offer the hope of a better world.
A Dedicated Professor
Professor Jim Gaffney
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