Postsecondary education, a series.

I managed to carve out some time to myself this morning.  Expect a post later on postsecondary education, the followup to this post (check out the comments there if you haven't yet, and please add some).

This is me thinking out loud about something I haven't figured out yet, and I hope it will turn into a long-ish series.

In the first followup post, which you should see later today (UPDATE:  Here for part 1 and here for part 2, and here for part 3), I'm going to dig into relevant Catholic teaching to see what limits and requirements it sets on the responsibilities between parents and their children growing to emancipation.  Not because I expect to find all the answers there, but because I expect to find some absolutes that helpfully constrain the myriad possible solutions.

After that I will probably write about what "emancipation" means -- whether it is abrupt or gradual, how you know when it has started or when it has begun, and the significance of legal emancipation as defined by statute and custom.

Then I'll see if there are any more useful general principles out there, perhaps drawn from empirical observations or other philosophies.  After that we'll look at applications in specific economic situations.

This post will be updated and serve as an index to posts in the series.

UPDATED LIST:

• Introduction:  Postsecondary Education Questions
• Fundamental Catholic principles:  What is vocation?  What is the content of education?
• More Fundamental Catholic principles:  What do parents owe their children?
• Still more fundamental Catholic principles:  What do children owe their parents?  What do parents and children owe each other? What happens at emancipation?
• Emancipation:  Practical and legal considerations
• For the sake of completeness:  Filial responsibility laws.
• Thoughts on training that's both philosophical and vocational
• Can you still work your way through college?
• Are we aware how much the costs have changed in the last 20 years?
• "Ignore your parents." When parents' advice is actually really outdated and bad.
• Do parents have an obligation to help adult offspring finish their education?
• How do you give "judicious advice" and "educate" your kids to "establish a family in favorable economic conditions" without "exerting pressure...to choose a profession?"
• A summary of what we've learned so far...
• "Why College Is a Bad Deal for America" (guest post by Mark)
• Three ways of being "able," three ways of being "unable" (or:  Heinlein's syllabus)
• Why parents may encourage children to be open-minded about college alternatives
• Who is responsible for each necessary part of an education -- parents, or the individual?
• Classical liberal arts in high school:  is it a solution to the problem of high-cost college liberal arts education?
• The provider's education -- conclusions drawn from contemplating the parts of education relevant to providing for a family
• The humanist's education -- conclusions drawn from contemplating the parts of education that transmit necessary human culture and values
• The religious education -- conclusions drawn from contemplating the parts of education that transmit an education in faith and morals
• Alternatives to college (or college right away)
• A response to Darwin's post:  Pitfalls of assuming that the four-year college is best.
• Links to Megan McArdle on "Is College a Lousy Investment?"
• Alternative means of parental support past 18:  what you can pay for besides college.  
• The four things you're buying when you buy education
• Can the signalling game be fixed?
• Another summary of everything I've learned so far
• ....and more to come....

Stay tuned.

Comments

[MelanieB]

I'm really looking forward to this series. My thoughts as I typed them out felt so nebulous and ill-stated. What I love so much about the way you tackle questions like this is your very methodical and thorough approach. I'm guessing that as usual you will help to crystallize much of my own thinking. Not necessarily shift my position but help to make it much more well-defined.

[Bearing]

I hope so, because mine are in dire need of crystallization as well.

[MelanieB]

Already I'm finding the comments have been helpful in at least making it clearer to me what it is that makes me feel I'm in such a muddle. It really is that tension between two goods: the utilitarian good of long-term financial stability and the human good of a well-formed intellect. While there has been a general decline in the ability of the university to provide the second due to the cultural emphasis on utilitarianism and the corrupting influence of relativism on the intellectual life in academia, I still think it is possible to carve out a university education in the classical sense, as training in an intellectual discipline. I'm really curious to hear your views on the subject since you come from an educational background that is much more pragmatic and, well, useful in a utilitarian sense than mine is.