"The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursing his own education. This will not be a widely shared pursuit until we get over our odd conviction that education is what goes on in school buildings and nowhere else." --John W. Gardner

The only time I considered going to anything other than a tech school was a private, for-profit institution that promised a bachelor's degree without all the English classes and other nonsense. Three-years, tops.

Thank god my naivety never bore fruit.

I once believed that education was about a trade--after all, you can't learn to be smart. I look at classes labeled "business leadership" and wonder, "What the f*&k does a 22-year-old, with no experience outside of educational institutions, trained by a (wo)man in a similar situation, know about leading?" Creative writing--how the hell does someone learn to be creative? Isn't "creative writing" just "writing" except done by someone with creativity? I survived a semester in an "Introduction to Business" class being taught by someone who had never managed--much less started--a business. She vehemently argued with me that, even though the book listed a "laissez faire" management style, there was no circumstance in the business world that called for it.

Long story short, I had a bitter taste in my mouth when it came to education. It took many hours of frustration under the yoke of my own short-sightedness to relent...a little bit.

A few months ago I posed a question on the forums here that elicited a few very thorough responses. For this, I am incredibly grateful. It was unfair of me to pose this question without clarifying my long-standing position on postsecondary education. Unfortunately, it was the content that was lacking in the responses that taught me the most.

Not one non-trad stepped forward.

The reason I wanted a non-traditional student--someone who attended college at a time other than immediately after high school--is that I wanted to hear from someone who knew what it was like to get by in a world without it. To beg for a professional position without listing a degree, without discussing college courses; to get into a conversation about education, without a story about a dorm roommate.

I place a lot of stock in the collective intelligence and capabilities of the Matador network--so when no one stepped forward, it reinforced something that I already suspected:

The "uneducated" are eventually silenced.

Not literally, of course. The theory that there's a secret society of people who hold liberal arts degrees, whose sole purpose is to block the communications of the uneducated is insane, at best. Allow me to explain.

It has been my experience that, for an "uneducated" person to call into question the critical thinking abilities of an "educated" person elicits a communicative blockade. I once jokingly asked a Vice President which course in their MBA magically qualified them to become a VP. It was a joke, because I respected this VP, and didn't question their ability to lead. Uncomfortable laughter was followed by a dismissive "yeah...".

College graduates are facing more and more pressure to quantify their four-to-seven years. Their higher education must, under any and all circumstances, qualify them for a job they otherwise wouldn't have been qualified. After all, what was the point of going to college if you are going to be competing against people who didn't go to college? What were those years in the dorm/abroad/at the coffee house for if they don't amount to an average increase in pay?

So we, the merely high school educated, learn to keep our mouth shut as a result of constant, subtle interactions in our everyday lives. In this way, the intelligentsia maintains an accidental barrier between themselves and the great unwashed.

Now today, I read a lot of insights into cultures and places and see a certain irony. At one turn a writer, usually college-educated, laments the inescapable plight of these poor unwashed; inescapable because they are, of course, too stupid to change their situation or to realize that their situation is bad. Another writer, usually college-educated, extols the undiscovered virtues of acting like these poor unwashed people; what an amazing feat that they find happiness in their dirty, simple lives! Neither of them ever writes and says, "Maybe they're smart enough to choose this."

As I stare at my University acceptance letter, I feel both pride and nausea. This is not an issue of self esteem; it's about pushing through a barrier--a barrier that sounds crazy to some, because they have never seen it. Starting in fall 2008, I'm pursuing a bachelor's in English, but for all I feel it matters, it could be a B.A. in Interpretive Dance with a minor in Sexual Economics. I don't mind if I never make a penny more as a result. After all, it’s the journey and not the destination, right?

;)

[i]"We must learn to honor excellence in every socially accepted human activity, however humble the activity, and to scorn shoddiness, however exalted the activity. An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society that scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."   --John Gardner[/i]