Dollars and sense
Good ol’-fashioned university soul searching
WILLIAM D. GOULD
What does it mean to receive a university education? If one merely looks at statistics, it may mean that one’s salary may take a substantial jump, or they may attain that long-coveted job, or perhaps even achieve some sense of personal satisfaction. All of these are noble goals in and of themselves, but when it has become the main focus for a university to merely make its students comfortable in their lives, or give them warm comfy feelings, then we have lost more then we have gained in dollars and cents — we have lost our sense in an endless search for truth.
Since our society has set up universities to act as training grounds for the work force, we have relegated the pursuit of knowledge into a dangerous and, in many ways, compromising position. There is nothing wrong with students acquiring the skills necessary to perform their individual callings in life. However, when this becomes the main function of higher education, the love of learning is relegated to a chore, and in many cases becomes a hindrance to career advancement. Ultimately and ideally, the university should be asking its students to not merely seek a higher GPA, an increased salary or a greater social life, but rather should be asking something more profound, exciting and life-changing: the pursuit of truth.
While driving home I stumbled across a sign that read “education is the transmission of civilization.” This is a scary thought if our entire civilization is driven and defined by making money or fulfilling our own personal desires. The human condition shouts out to something deeper and more profound — a search for truth in all of its glory, excitement and political incorrectness. When the university has sidestepped truth and relegated it to the bleachers for special interest groups of all kinds, it has performed an intellectual castration.
This is fine for the civilization of individuals who are concerned only about bettering their lot and not their brothers’ and sisters’ lots, but such a
Rather then becoming a cornerstone to civilization, the university becomes a hindrance, creating instead a situation for an academic implosion throughout all classes of society.
civilization does not last long. When a university reinforces this destructive paradigm, it no longer produces men and women who seek to serve others, and instead creates men and women who seek pleasure and comfort solely for themselves. Rather then becoming a cornerstone to civilization, the university becomes a hindrance, creating instead a situation for an academic implosion throughout all classes of society.
The consumer culture of our Western world is both openly and subliminally against this view: the idea that morality may have a solid foundation in truth is rarely spoken or suggested, let alone the ideas of justice or accountability for one’s own actions. All of which, sadly, are issues that have come home to roost particularly in Manitoban society. It is not the university’s job to preach, but rather the university’s role is to defend truth in all its forms, be they in a social context, political context or even religious context. Truth knows no boundaries, nor does learning.
Unfortunately, in our culture, for truth to be presented the university must cling to it as a shipwrecked man to a raft without which there is no survival. If one truth is true another belief or opinion must be wrong. The university should have no shame in standing up for reasoned truth and condemning irrational falsity. It can be hoped, then, that those who walk the schools’ halls may acquire the skills of truth themselves, thus creating a population with spines and courage.
In our constant quest to replace the old we have forgotten the foundation that is often laid for us. This is true in the context of the university. Thankfully, we are neither the first nor the last to take this quest for ageless truth, as we have our forefathers before us and will have a new generation to come in front of us. Perhaps it is worth considering that in our attempt to provide personal happiness we have neglected our brother and sister without whom we can never been happy. The old teachings that seemed to ring through the halls of ages past reinforce this view of education as a cornerstone, and universities proclaimed “to the glory of God and sound learning.”
Perhaps it is not odd then that the architecture of aged universities, made out of stone and rich mahogany, reflects a solid ancient tradition. These institutions of higher learning were built like ancient fortresses seeking to be foundations of sound wisdom; designed to be houses of knowledge seeking to elevate the soul up to canonization. Now these centers of so-called enlightenment are built out of steel and glass; as cold, transparent and barren as the modern soul.
