Postsecondary education questions: the provider's education.

_{(This post is part of the series on postsecondary education.)}

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I am not completely pleased with what I am about to do. I recognize that education is about learning to be a "whole" human being, and about integrating education in the humanities with education in human craft and science to make a unified whole.

But my gifts are in analysis, not synthesis, and my inclination, presented with a whole that I cannot completely grasp, is to take it apart. So I am going to do this with the necessary content of education. I want to take those pieces which seem most to be about this aspect of vocation:

More practically, the vocation of all men and women is "to provid[e] the substance of life for themselves and for their families," thereby "performing their activities in a way which appropriately benefits society...unfolding the Creator's work, consulting the advantages of [others], and are contributing by their personal industry to the realization in history of the divine plan." [Gaudium et Spes, par. 34]

So here is a carefully chosen subset of the items most directly and practically relevant to the act of providing for oneself and one's family. At the end, I will draw some conclusions.

Provider skills that THE FAMILY is expected to inculcate and teach, or to delegate to trusted others

That the human being is a person, not an object of trade.

The family teaches children freedom with regard to material goods, and that man is more precious for what he is than for what he has, by a simple and austere lifestyle.

The family must train the children to express calm and objective judgments which will guide them in the choice or rejection of media that is available.

The family should teach by example how to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor.

The family must provide for children an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery.

The family should educate children to have a mature sense of responsibility with which they can follow their vocation, and in such a way that each may fully perform his or her role according to it.

The family should, at the right moment, integrate the religious formation of young people with a preparation for life as a couple.

The family should educate children so that, if they marry, they can by means of that education establish their family in economic conditions which tend to promote or facilitate the establishment of that family.

The family, in proximate preparation, will assist individuals in gaining the basic requisites for well-ordered family life, such as stable work, sufficient financial resources, sensible administration, notions of housekeeping.

The family will encourage in the proximate preparation for marriage the study of the nature of responsible parenthood, with the essential medical and biological knowledge connected with it.

The family will acquaint a person, in that proximate preparation, with correct methods for the education of children.

 

Provider skills that THE INDIVIDUAL is expected to develop in himself

Each man has the duty to retain an understanding of the whole human person in which the values of intellect, will, conscience, and fraternity are preeminent.

A Christian is encouraged to strive to understand the ways of thinking and judging of other men of their time.

A Christian is encouraged to blend new sciences and theories and the understanding of the most recent discoveries with Christian morality and the teaching of Christian doctrine.

A layperson is encouraged to receive a sufficient formation in theology.

A Christian must recognize the legitimacy of different opinions with regard to temporal solutions.

An individual learns control and right use of one's inclinations -- based on the esteem for authentic human values instilled by the parents.

An individual develops his authentic maturity by building on the virtue of chastity

An individual develops the manner of regarding and meeting people of the opposite sex -- based on the esteem for authentic human values instilled by the parents.

An individual becomes capable of respecting and fostering the nuptial meaning of the body by building on the virtue of chastity.

An individual grows responsibly in human sexuality by building on the moral norms that are taught by the parents.

Young people gain sensible administration and notions of housekeeping -- by building on the assistance they got in their proximate preparation for marriage.

Young people gain stable work and sufficient financial resources -- by building on the assistance they got in their proximate preparation for marriage.

A person establishes his family in favorable moral, social and economic conditions by means of the education provided by the family.

 

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One thing I notice here is that in education, pretty much every economic good is explicitly connected to marriage and the family. Education that assists in obtaining "stable work," "sufficient financial resources," and "favorable economic conditions" all are integrated with marriage preparation.

It strikes me that it's one thing to insist that the education dollar be well invested, to return a good value in future earnings. It is quite another to insist that the education dollar be invested so that a family can be well established.

I am becoming more and more convinced that large debt is positively to be avoided in postsecondary education, because having a great deal of debt is a demonstrably unfavorable condition in which to establish a family.

We can bring this full circle, by the way, recognizing that the young people establishing their own new family have the same responsibilities toward their children, and some of those responsibilities are vocational.

Parents must make decisions carefully and wisely for the good of the family: they must "reckon with both the material and spiritual conditions of the times as well as of their state in life," and they must "consult the interests of the family group, of temporal society, and of the Church," in order to "thoughtfully take into account both their own welfare and that of their children, those already born and those the future may bring" [Gaudium et Spes par. 50]

In fatherhood, "a man is called upon to ensure the harmonious and united development of all the members of the family... by work which is never a cause of division in the family but promotes its unity and stability" [Familiaris Consortio par 25].

The work of a married man, in other words, is limited to work that promotes the unity and stability of his family. Different families can probably absorb different kinds of work in this respect.

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An education that fails to give a young person the tools to find stable work and sufficient financial resources to establish a family in favorable economic conditions is, it seems, a failed education. An education that emphasized the wrong things. An education gone wrong. A miseducation.

Can anyone disagree with this?

Comments

[MelanieB]

"I am becoming more and more convinced that large debt is positively to be avoided in postsecondary education, because having a great deal of debt is a demonstrably unfavorable condition in which to establish a family."

That sums up my position pretty well.

I just find I have a hard time reconciling that conviction with my equally strong conviction that a solid liberal arts education should not be the perquisite of a wealthy few but is something that I also positively want for my children. I don't think it's necessary for everyone but I do think it was a necessity for me.

"An education that fails to give a young person the tools to find stable work and sufficient financial resources to establish a family in favorable economic conditions is, it seems, a failed education. An education that emphasized the wrong things. An education gone wrong. A miseducation."

I can't disagree with this at all. I don't think that's the sum total of what an education should do but I do think that an education which leaves an individual incapable of establishing a family in favorable economic conditions has failed to treat the individual as a full human person. With the caveat that when we say that this is the goal of education we don't mean that it must be the goal of any particular educational establishment so much as the goal of both the parent who is guiding the process of education and the goal of the student who is in the process of being emancipated. I think it's fine to have educational institutions which do not address this goal either explicitly or implicitly. In fact, I think one place where post-secondary education has gone tragically wrong is trying to promise students and parents that a university education can and will meet this goal (or some lesser shadow of this goal at least.) I think it can't and it won't and in fact shouldn't be trying to do so.

[Bearing]

Melanie:

"With the caveat that when we say that this is the goal of education we don't mean that it must be the goal of any particular educational establishment so much as the goal of both the parent who is guiding the process of education and the goal of the student who is in the process of being emancipated."

This is very important to keep in mind. I think maybe one of the reasons why people are willing to shell out such big bucks for expensive private colleges (particularly Catholic schools) if they have the money, or co-sign giant loans if they don't, is out of a feeling that the school is responsible for providing the necessary education, that they are the specialists that can do a job superior to what the parents would provide, and that it will do so. It might well be worth such a large amount of money if a college really did provide the necessary education, could fill in all the gaps left by an inadequate primary and secondary education, and inculcate the parents' values right along with it! But none of that is shown to be so.

We have to have a realistic idea of what colleges can provide. And I think we have to have that realistic idea as soon as possible, so that we can provide in the home what we know they need but are unlikely to receive in any college that costs a reasonable amount of money.

I am beginning to think that if you are positively convinced that your child should have a strong liberal arts education, and if like me you are positively convinced that debt is to be avoided, you should hedge against the future by providing at least a latent competency in the liberal arts to your high schoolers.

I'd also like to point out that those of us with technical degrees are not necessarily operating in the outer darkness, devoid of humanist values. We just happen to be largely self-taught :)

[MelanieB]

"I am beginning to think that if you are positively convinced that your child should have a strong liberal arts education, and if like me you are positively convinced that debt is to be avoided, you should hedge against the future by providing at least a latent competency in the liberal arts to your high schoolers."

I think I heartily concur with that statement. In fact, I think that we're really both pretty much in agreement even if we do approach the subject from different angles.

And I would never accuse you or my other technical degree friends of being in the outer darkness. If you were, I don't think I would keep coming back here so often because I'm not sure we could even speak the same language enough to have a conversation. In fact, in many ways my admiration for the self-taught is in direct proportion to the strength of my advocacy for a strong liberal arts education precisely because of my doubts as to my own ability to have taught myself many of the things I've learned formally. I tend to be intellectually lazy and pretty sloppy for all I pride myself as a thinker. I think left to my own devices I'd have sunk pretty deep into that darkness.

[MelanieB]

I also think that I'm wearing two different hats in this discussion, which might seem a bit schizophrenic.

On the one hand, I do want to be realistic about what college can provide and to be able to see my children begin their lives on a solid financial footing, free of debt.

On the other hand, I am also an idealist who would like to see some kind of post-secondary education reform which would restore affordable options both in a utilitarian vein, preparing young people for a lifetime of supporting themselves and a family and also in a liberal arts/humanist vein. I'd love to see my kids come to adulthood in a world where getting both kinds of education can be achieved and it doesn't have to be an either/or situation and where both kinds can be achieved without accruing crushing debt.

I know these are really two different conversations and your series is really focusing on the first proposition: what can we realistically expect as parents as we prepare our children to go out into the world as it exists. At the same time, I keep wondering what we might realistically be able to do to work towards achieving something more in line with the more idealistic goal.

[Bearing]

You are right that I am focusing on questions that concern the individual family trying to make good decisions for its members. I am not really addressing the systemic problems of higher education in the U.S.

There are glimmers of hope. A campus in the University of Texas system announced in
May plans for a $10,000 science bachelor's degree ( http://www.utsystem.edu/news/2012/05/02/ut-permian-basin-offer-10000-undergraduate-degree-program ) . And if a chemistry degree can be made that inexpensive, why not an English degree, which doesn't require lab space?

I went googling around looking for a reference I remember seeing recently, where someone was supposedly going to sue for a finding that requiring an undergraduate degree in order to be considered for hiring, unless the degree is related to the job performance, was unjust discrimination in the same way that requiring intelligence tests is, and that such discrimination should be illegal. I wouldn't mind seeing that one go through.