I got to thinking about moms and education the other day. Sometimes when moms get together, we all laugh about how we studied something or other in college but we don't remember a thing now.
First, I don't think that's true. I think most of us do remember quite a bit about what we learned, whether in our major/minor, or in general education classes. I had a nine-year gap between my BA in Linguistics, and my first MA class, Linguistics for ESL Teachers. I was amazed at how much I remembered without even realizing it.
BUT. Second, my point is that it's not the point of education to have us be able to recall the minutiae of certain subjects, ten years (or five years or one year...) after we graduate. Rather, the effect of education ten years on should be that we ask different questions, and think more critically, and see the world in a different way than we might have.
Anyway, just something that's been on my mind for some reason. Possibly because girls here sometimes get a bad rap because they come to this prestigious university, study for four years, graduate...and then get married and stay home and have kids. (Depending on your personal cultural context, this may sound very, very familiar.)
The implication is that their education is "wasted," or somehow has less value than the education of someone who, I don't know, gets a job in their field after graduation? I guess?
And sometimes we hear the platitude that well, even if you don't get a job in your field, and you stay home to tend your children instead, you will still totally use your education, all those things that you spent all that time learning. Wasn't there a BYU Magazine feature series to that effect a few years ago? I think that's great. But, to come full circle: I don't think that's the point.
Education changes the way we think and the decisions we make and the questions we ask about the world around us. I think that's so much more valuable than any specific content we may remember from x college course.
Do you agree?
First, I don't think that's true. I think most of us do remember quite a bit about what we learned, whether in our major/minor, or in general education classes. I had a nine-year gap between my BA in Linguistics, and my first MA class, Linguistics for ESL Teachers. I was amazed at how much I remembered without even realizing it.
BUT. Second, my point is that it's not the point of education to have us be able to recall the minutiae of certain subjects, ten years (or five years or one year...) after we graduate. Rather, the effect of education ten years on should be that we ask different questions, and think more critically, and see the world in a different way than we might have.
Anyway, just something that's been on my mind for some reason. Possibly because girls here sometimes get a bad rap because they come to this prestigious university, study for four years, graduate...and then get married and stay home and have kids. (Depending on your personal cultural context, this may sound very, very familiar.)
The implication is that their education is "wasted," or somehow has less value than the education of someone who, I don't know, gets a job in their field after graduation? I guess?
And sometimes we hear the platitude that well, even if you don't get a job in your field, and you stay home to tend your children instead, you will still totally use your education, all those things that you spent all that time learning. Wasn't there a BYU Magazine feature series to that effect a few years ago? I think that's great. But, to come full circle: I don't think that's the point.
Education changes the way we think and the decisions we make and the questions we ask about the world around us. I think that's so much more valuable than any specific content we may remember from x college course.
Do you agree?