Lisa earning multiple "educations"

A few weeks back I posted an article in which I described observations I had made regarding the attitudes of undergraduate students towards their education. Page later posted a follow up in response to some of the comments the article had received. I too noted an apparent misunderstanding of what I was proposing in the comment content, and offer the following; The Oz Fallacy Fallacy; the perception that my article on the Oz Fallacy was a suggestion that an education is a valueless or futile exercise.

My original intent was to express my concern that people were confusing the aim of higher education to be the acquisition of a degree. Yes, many probably do hope to earn a degree. I myself have collected a few thus far, and I am nowhere near ‘done’. But the aim of higher education is the acquisition of an education; a degree merely symbolically represents that some standard level of an education has been achieved.

Some of the comments referred to the practice of dismissing claims made by those lacking in the credentials as contradictory to my argument. And, frankly no, one cannot dismiss a claim solely on the credentials (or lack) of the person making the claim. A claim should be made evaluated on the content of the claim. While it’s true that I’d be skeptical to accept a claim proposed by someone outside of that field of expertise, if the claim itself demonstrates scientific validity, the fact that the person making the claim lacked these credentials would not be a reason to still dismiss it. Likewise, if a person makes a claim within their supposed area of expertise, if the claim is lacking in robust evidence I would still reject it regardless of the resume of the claimant.

But, this is still within the line of reasoning put forth in my original post; the symbol itself need not always represent the virtue it purports to uniquely represent. However, this is not to say that an education is without value. Quite the contrary; the pursuit of higher education is a noble undertaking. But it’s the pursuit of higher education that one should aspire to, not simply passing by a few minimal standards en route to an undergraduate degree.

So, in summary, my original post was a comment on my observation of the culture of degrees, and the diminishing emphasis of that goal being on an education. I will conclude by saying there is hope, a student at the end of last semester offered (unsolicited) “I finally know that getting a good grade is great, but learning is the goal.”