Throughout history, many people have argued on the importance of education solely for the purpose of learning and self-empowerment and not so much for future job training. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, he wanted to help tackle illiteracy amongst Brazilian peasants by teaching them to read because he believed illiteracy was one of the main causes of society’s social problems, including the mistreatment of the poor. In A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft, she advocated for the importance of women's education to become better mothers and “independent and rational beings in a world that framed the female of the species as irrational and incapable of reason and intelligence” (Lecture 6, Slide 13). In 1792, women were thought of as “property” of the men in their lives and couldn’t work, receive an education, own property, or even have control over their own bodies. Wollstonecraft believed women's education allowed them to empower and liberate themselves and demolish gender roles. W.E.B. DuBois advocated for African American education beyond job training and, much like Wollstonecraft, believed education would empower themselves and their community.
Critical thinking is an important part of educational learning. In “The World as Classroom” by bell hooks, she argued for the liberation of education, much
like Wollstonecraft and DuBois. hooks thought the classroom structure and the content taught is political and created “to reassert the values and ideologies of the dominant class, and frame
people’s minds into their roles in the hierarchy of oppression” (Lecture 6,
Slide 19). She argued that through an education, one would learn to think critically of society and develop values and ideologies for themselves. In Beyond
Critical Thinking by Michael Roth, he emphasizes the
importance of critical thinking through the humanities and the development of a
“humanistic culture that values the desire to learn” (Roth). He says we should
be able to think critically beyond just criticizing and also be able to form
ideas and legitimize the values and norms of our culture. In Deschooling Society
by Ivan Illich, he argues that society must eliminate education as a formal
institution. He says, “As long as an individual is not explicitly conscious of
the ritual character of the process through which he was initiated to the
forces which shape his cosmos, he cannot break the spell and shape a new
cosmos” (Illich, page 51). Much like that of hooks, he argues that education frames our
thinking and shapes our values and if we are not aware of this, we can’t form
our own opinions or ideas.
Although the importance of receiving an education just to learn and empower ourselves has been argued for centuries, why do students really attend college? In My Freshman Year, an ethnographic study by Rebekah Nathan of why students do in college and why they attend, she discovered students don't attend college purely to learn or empower themselves to think critically. Although this study doesn’t apply to all college students, it is probably true for a lot of students. On page 100 of her book, she says "she found 'how little intellectual life seemed to matter in college'" and the "'engagement in political and philosophical issues of the day was not a significant part of college student culture'” (as cited by Corrigan, 2013). On page 103, she also says that when talking to students, she discovered that students thought classes were "the 'price one has to pay' to participate in college culture" (as cited by Corrigan, 2013). She continues on page 107, saying that the students "she observed did what they had to do to pass classes, earn desired grades, attain desired credentialing for desired careers, etc. But they did so first and foremost not by learning what we set out for them to learn but by learning how to 'manage' college, how to get those desired ends with as little time and effort as possible (as cited by Corrigan, 2013). Nathan observed students complaining a lot about the reading, the professor, or other assignments. On page 96, she says that she never heard students ask each other, "'Did you like that reading?' or 'That paper assignment really made me think'" (as cited by Corrigan, 2013). The students she observed attended college to engage in the social aspects and receive the finish product of the degree and the career, but didn't attend it solely for the purpose of learning or to think critically. Although most of her findings reflect this, she "stresses that student culture is not homogeneous and that it contains pockets of students who want to learn and who work hard to do so" (Corrigan).
College education is of most value and most useful
when embraced with the ideas of Freire, Wollstonecraft, DuBois, hooks, Roth,
and Illich in mind. We should receive this education because we are curious and
are motivated by the process of learning, beyond job training. A college education should liberate and empower us to thinking critically, determine our own values and frame our own opinions, and contribute to creating a better society.
Sources:
Bredin, R. (2016). Lecture 6.
Corrigan, P. T. (2013, September 27). Students Don’t Go to College to Learn. Retrieved March 27, 2016, from http://teachingandlearninginhighered.org/2013/09/27/students-dont-go-to-college-to-learn/
Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling society. New York: Harper & Row.
