The Irrelevance of a College Education

The Irrelevance of a College Education

Finding myself a college junior at age 56, I have often thought about why one might want an education in the first place. When asked why it's taken me so long to complete college, well almost complete, my reasons are both simple and complex. I never real ly liked high school that much and my family moved around a lot. As a result, I attended several high schools. In retrospect, I now understand that high school is difficult even if one never moves. But I digress. Why get a college education? Would I be sm arter? More importantly, would people around me think of me as smarter? In fact, did it really matter at all what people around me thought? Was it money then, or pride? Perhaps it was respect.

Starting college at night in 1965, I decided to take all the "required courses" to get them out of the way. I don't recall having an advisor back then, nor do I remember asking for one who might have suggested there was no rush in taking the "required co urses" immediately, but rather to take some courses that I might enjoy. So I enrolled in night school and took classes in Western Civilization and Economics. The Western Civ class (as it was called back then) was ok, but the only thing I learned from Econ omics was that the professor cleared his throat 26 times in the course of a minute. Feeling nothing was to be gained in a class where I was counting the clearing of a professor's throat, I dropped out, never bothering to withdraw from the class, but that' s another story.

A couple of years later I decided to go back to school. I was a young newlywed at the time, working to put my husband through college, but still convinced I should take the courses I was mandated to have what difference if I en...

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...hy? why? why? To me, when we can begin to answer that question, we will all be better off. And more importantly, we should then all be able to answer the question why get a college education?

Works Cited

Hart, Jeffrey, "How to Get a College Education." Lunsford, Andrea and John Ruszkiewicz, The Presence of Others: Voices and Images That Call for Response 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's 2000. 126-132.

Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition. 1999 ed.

hooks, bell, "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education." Lunsford, Andrea and John Ruszkiewicz, The Presence of Others: Voices and Images That Call for Response 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's 2000. 93-104.

Rose, Mike, "Lives on the Boundary." Lunsford, Andrea and John Ruszkiewicz, The Presence of Others: Voices and Images That Call for Response 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's 2000. 105-119.