Opinion: In defense of an impractical education

Earning a bachelor’s degree is a lot more complicated than it used to be. Not necessarily harder, just more complicated.

Set aside for a moment affordability, which is skewed toward the middle and upper classes along with straight-A students who test well. Getting into college is easier than staying in college, and staying in college to earn that degree requires lots of delayed gratification. 

I have long contended that a bachelor’s degree does more than show your developing “expertise” in a particular field or two. It shows that you are able and willing to learn. Earning a degree requires more than study, it requires perseverance and determination. I know that from experience.

It took me two tries to earn my bachelor’s degree. I jumped straight into college after high school, but I didn’t make it two years before dropping out. It would be a dozen years before I would return to college and, as it turned out, I was a much better student as an adult in my 30s than I was out of high school in my teens.

Of course, everyone has their own path to take. Some skip college altogether and go straight into the trades, opting instead for practical skills that provide a slice of the American pie — to which I say, more power to them. Being a provider for one’s family is a noble endeavor, even if it takes a lifetime of hard work to achieve.

Others, however, aren’t so easily satisfied. Some of us need more than the usual bread-and-butter issues to keep us going. We need some abstract, less tangible challenges to keep us motivated. 

The study of philosophy is a good example. It may seem pointless in the real world, but for some, it’s where meaning can be found.

You can live an entire life without knowing that and you’ll be OK, but for those whose minds don’t sit still, for those who question the world as we know it, it’s essential.

History is what does it for me. That was my major in college, and it’s enriched my life and career in innumerable ways. It’s one of the best things I ever did for myself — both intellectually and emotionally.

Here in New Mexico, we’re trying to figure out how to lift our schools out of the cellar. School districts are giving new emphasis to Career Technical Education, which combines “book learning” with on-the-job training to prepare high school students for the working world. Plus, the state just passed a $1.3 billion budget for higher education, with much of the money going into practical skills development. Such is a necessary investment into our collective future.

But let’s not devalue education for education’s sake. Knowledge is a good thing to have, whether you’re making money off it or not. And critical thinking, a higher level of intellectual reasoning that’s sorely needed in our national discourse these days, could actually save our democracy, if we’d let it.

So next time the “woke” culture showing up on college campuses alarms you, have a little faith in our intellectual prowess as a nation. Free thinking, after all, is what truly keeps us free.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

[email protected]