"a perfect study of anything requires a knowledge of everything", C.S. Lewis quotes Hegel in saying. I think he's right. This immediately made me think of economics, which is my undeclared major. Economics involves everything. Every interaction between people, corporations, and nations are all part of economics. In order to fully grasp the economic situation of the world, one would have to study math, language, trade, international relations, business, history and a multitude of other subjects. Applying this to English, Lewis suggests that for a full understanding of the language and literature one would have to study French, Spanish, German, and Italian texts because of their impact on English writing. C.S. Lewis wisely points out that this cannot really be done.
So, if we cannot study everything then what should we study? Well, whatever we want. What we should not do, Lewis argues, is let someone else make the choices for us. Speaking to the college student, he says "it is time you learned to wrestle with nature for yourself". I think Lewis would perhaps be a bit disappointed with the core classes at Calvin. While I don't think Lewis would mind that we have to take some classes outside our major, he would probably advocate for more options, letting the student decide. For Lewis, college is a place for learning, not teaching. In his view everyone at a college is a student, professors are just the older students. Everyone is there to learn and explore God's world.
And on this point I very much agree with Lewis. College, particularly graduate studies, should be a place for exploring the topics that interest you. It should be free, with few restrictions getting in the way of seeking knowledge. In class, it was mentioned that college is almost expected in American society. It is the natural thing to do after high school for many. While this in many ways is a good thing seeing as how education is a good thing, I believe the effect of this is that many people are getting an education they do not really want or need. College should really be a place for those who want to be in college, a place of higher learning and thought. Education is good, vocation training is necessary and can also be very good, but learning is really something special.
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I think it would be really interesting if students had more of a say in what classes they took. That would either work very well, or absolutely terrible, at least for those who would choose to take advantage of it and just take as easy of classes as possible. I would also agree that everyone in a college should be there to learn, but we are held back by those who are not here to gain as much knowledge as they can.
ReplyDeleteIn two words I agree however as much as I think that that should be the case in our society it is not. I think that this is mainly because of a term I once heard one of my teachers call academic inflation. This is where the level of education required in order to get a job is growing. At this rate in another fifty years or so you are going to need a degree just to get a job in a factory. We need to curb this now. If we can make it easier to get jobs without a degree then learning can be more for the sake of learning. Sorry to use your blog to push my own agenda but I think we agree on one point at least. Learning should be special.
ReplyDeleteI like the point you made about economics connecting to many different subject areas because I am also a business major. I agree that a wide range of study is very important and to limit someones education to s fine point is very detrimental to their careers
ReplyDeleteYou raise an interesting point regarding economics Dan. Surely, it involves all sorts of studies and knowings, all of which will help you with an economics based profession. You also do a good job tying in with Calvin and our core requirements at this college
ReplyDeleteI like how you included your personal application of this essay. I would agree that the core classes can be at times very limiting to those who have a desire to learn other things, but God has a plan for every course you take. You may think that a class is limiting your ability to learn, but God may be using that class to help you grow in your relationship with God.
ReplyDeleteI like your comments of college in general, and agree with you. I like your suggestion of more choice in core classes, assuming that you would still have to pick a certain number of classes from certain categories.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comment about leaving college to those who truly do wish to learn. The system is getting cluttered with those who do not wish to learn and ends up creating another system with more education than learning. This also causes a problem as those who chose to not go to college to pursue other things like work or entrepreneurship have no chance if their initial attempt fails. They would have few resources and do to the masses of people in colleges unable to get even a half decent job to make another attempt at what they passes college up for, or pay for a college education.
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