College: what should it be?

This post is intended for both college students (especially first-year students) and college instructors as we begin another academic year. 

This past summer, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my experiences as a student and teacher. (I've been one, the other, or both for literally my entire adult life.) I spend a little time on this kind of reflection every summer: pondering the previous school year, appreciating what went well, thinking about how to make my courses better, etc. But I spent even more time doing so this past summer, perhaps because I've now been teaching at college full time for 5 years and I needed a mental break for a couple months, and perhaps because I now have an infant daughter (7 months) and I'm feeling especially philosophical about life and learning.

As part of that reflection, I read two books about education, both of which I highly recommend: Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (historian and writer); and College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, by Andrew Delbanco (Professor of American Studies at Columbia University). I was struck by Dr. Westover's stories in Educated, particularly by how unfathomably different her life has been from mine, apart from being academics by trade. And I was moved by Dr. Delbanco's passionate writing about the history, present, and future of colleges in America and what they can and ought to do for us as a society. 

The following quote is from the introduction to Dr. Delbanco's book:

At its core, a college should be a place where young people find help for navigating the territory between adolescence and adulthood. It should provide guidance, but not coercion, for students trying to cross that treacherous terrain on their way toward self-knowledge. It should help them develop certain qualities of mind and heart requisite for reflective citizenship. Here is my own attempt at reducing these qualities to a list, in no particular order of priority, since they are inseparable from one another.

1. A skeptical discontent with the present, informed by a sense of the past.
2. The ability to make connections among seemingly disparate phenomena.
3. Appreciation of the natural world, enhanced by knowledge of science and the arts.
4. A willingness to imagine experiences from perspectives other than one's own.
5. A sense of ethical responsibility.

These habits of thought and feeling are hard to attain and harder to sustain. They cannot be derived from exclusive study of the humanities, the natural sciences, or the social sciences, and they cannot be fully developed solely by academic study, no matter how well "distributed" or "rounded". It is absurd to imagine them as commodities to be purchased and delivered to student consumers. Ultimately they make themselves known not in grades or examinations but in the way we live our lives.

 Delbanco, A. (2012) College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be. Princeton University Press. p. 3-4

I had this list of qualities in mind throughout the rest of my reading of the book and while I prepared my courses for the fall semester that officially starts tomorrow. These lofty ideals of character and citizenry appeal to me. But I wonder how much I, as a teacher, am able to engage with students on these ideals, let alone encourage them to cultivate habits and behaviors associated with those ideals. Moreover, I wonder whether students are thinking of a similar list, or something else entirely. Take note that nothing in the quote above is remotely related to "employability" or "marketable skills". And yet, this is what I imagine many students are thinking of as they enter college. They know that a college degree is somehow required to "get a good job" and "succeed in life". But what do those goals even mean? And if we teachers don't have those ideas on our list of goals, why should we be teaching college anyway? What's the point?

So, it feels important to share this list publicly as a way to say that the list above truly is important to me, both as a teacher and as a citizen of this world. Those qualities are vastly more important to me than job skills or a grade point average, and I would hope that most other teachers would express a similar opinion. Yes, ultimately, I want my students to "succeed in life", under whatever definition they have individually for "success". But, I truly believe that pursuing the ideal qualities in that list will help lead to success and so much more.

In conclusion: students, that list of qualities is important to me and I will try to keep it in mind all year. I doubt that every class meeting, every assignment, or every conversation will be directly related to that list. It won't feel like it to you, nor to me. But I want that list to percolate through everything we do. I want you to consult the list every once in a while and reflect about your time at college and your life experiences, your behaviors, your personality, your culture. I will do the same. Together, I hope that we can push each other to be better people and to cultivate the ideals and habits represented in that list. In other words, I hope we can collectively pursue education in the broadest sense of the term.

And fellow teachers, I hope you will also keep that list in mind as you prepare and teach your courses, as you mentor students, as you give advice and grades and letters of recommendation, as you serve on college committees and do research and ... everything else that we do. Take time now and then to reflect on why you teach. Think about not only what you hope your students will learn from your courses, but also what you hope to learn from teaching those courses and working with your students.

Best wishes to all for a happy, productive, meaningful, and educational semester!