Mawalagedara, Nimendra. (2009). Education as the Primary Focus

When Sherwood Anderson said “The whole object of education is to develop the mind” I am certain he was oblivious about future education systems. Maybe there was a time when education was a pristine entity that provided unlimited knowledge to whomever was willing to absorb it. But somewhere between the time when people started moving out of caves to the time when careers started dominating every part of life, we have lost our interest in learning. Somewhere down the line, we have stopped questioning why the sun rises in the morning and sets at night. Concepts which are seemingly simple have been taken for granted. If our thirst for knowledge and exploration dwindles, we could stagnate as a species. It is our will to explore, our ability to cope with change and our undying desire to question bleak ideologies that brought us this far. Therefore, I believe boundaries should not be imposed on education, I also believe that an extremely liberal education is not the answer.

A liberal arts education system gives a student broader insight into a wide range of subjects. Students learn to draw in ideas from a vast area. It promotes spontaneous inspirations. Although some courses may not seem worth exploring and others may have no connection to the student’s chosen major, filtering education by what is useful or not is impossible. That is why I believe dullest and seemingly unworthy courses could teach students something that would alter the way they view their field of study. The physicists in the 1800’s were confident that they had peaked in physics discoveries. They were so confident that in 1890, Michaelson announced that “the more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered.” With the dawn of 1900, Maxwell Planck was trying to decide if he should go into research physics. His advisors warned him against it because they, like Michaelson, believed that our knowledge of physics had reached its saturation point. But a few years later, quantum physics was discovered, and with it modern physics became the place where greatest and most exciting discoveries lay. The universe is infinite; our understanding of things is negligible. All it takes is a new angle or an innocent question to break the next barrier. By limiting students to one course and specializing in a particular field leaves little room for serendipity. So it is extremely difficult to classify any course as less important or of little use. Limiting education can be the most dangerous thing.
While I strongly believe that what one has learnt will not be wasted; I also believe that an education system which is too broad and the liberal arts can dilute one’s education. If an institution emphasizes too much diversity of course and less on the depth of each course, students would graduate with very little knowledge that can be channeled into something productive. Forcing university freshman to follow a general education system under the assumption that they are not experienced enough to choose a major who is related to their future career is absurd. Freshman add up experiences every day, with each experience their point of view gradually changes.

Our experiences define us, but we cannot predict when we will experience a defining moment which would enlighten us about a new career path. What is the gauge that tells us when we are ready to make that decision? How old must we be before we are certain of what we want? Focusing on a particular major that interests us at the time is much better than groping around indecisively.

Having a liberal education within a chosen major would be a reasonable balance between the liberal arts and structural education systems. If students can explore various fields related to their degree program, then that would give them a much deeper understanding of the subject than if they specialized in one particular area of their chosen field. But, if students can discover how to apply what they learned in several different classes to their chosen major, that would reflect the best of what they learnt.

However, I firmly believe that the problem is that we are trying to define is what constitutes a “perfect” university education is. The beauty of education is that one can learn the same thing is several different ways. Each individual would have their own preference. Some would prefer a more career oriented education while others would like to follow a more structured system which would prepare them for a future in academics. Trying to fit everyone into one particular system would cause more harm and hinder undiscovered potential. Rather than trying to come up with the best education system, it would be better to come up with the effective education SYSTEMS which would fit the needs of all the different people out there. For instance I believe establishing career oriented, academic, liberal arts, and traditional universities we can achieve an equilibrium. Perhaps it can be done within a particular university. Even now, universities have separate science courses for science and arts majors. If that idea is expanded on a larger scale would allow students to not only choose their major but also how they want to study it.