Alexis Deguzman

ENG 110-C

 

In Ronald Barnett’s “The Idea of a Higher Education”, he talks about how a higher education is “unsettling” and “not meant to be a cosy experience”. It is never over, there is always more to know and more to read about or ask about. There is never an end or “higher education point”; there are “no final answers”. Sure, you could answer a few questions, or get an idea about the things you are studying or want to know, but there is a world of never ending questions out there, one thing links to another and so on. You never find out the end.

Universities have you take classes that you may think that you do not need, or don’t apply toward your degree. However, there’s so much more in the world out there; you never know what you’re going to use. Going through these courses, you learn different things, obviously, but you see things from different perspectives. You exposed to how all these different kinds of people see the things you think you have all figured out, so differently. No matter what class it is, you’re going to get something from it, and that’s my opinion. Nussbaum says, “education is not just about the passive assimilation of facts and cultural traditions, but about how challenging the mind to become active, competent, and thoughtfully critical in a complex world.” There’s more to education than the education, than the text, than the facts, than the ideas.

I’ve barely even touched the surface of “a higher education”, heck, I’m on my third day of college. I’m on my first weekend, and I feel like I have already learned so much. It is all so different, the idea of “it’s so big” itself is so big. My second day of school I had my first art class, most don’t think much of these when thinking about being a medical student of some sort, but my art professor, even some of the other students in my class were discussing art beyond its form. Art isn’t just art any more, it is a way you can think, a way you can look at things, it is a new perspective. I can look at an idea and have an opinion about it, but then someone else tosses their opinion in the bowl and I suddenly see five new things and have ten more questions to ask. Barnett said, as mentioned previously, “a higher education is unsettling”,and “things can always be other than they are”. I agree, as to me, it connects to what I was just saying, and like art, nothing is how it seems, there is always something more to see, there is always more to find out. I feel, has a touch of both Barnett and Nussbaum’s ideas. There is so much more in the world out here than just your goals, or your job, or major. A higher education is more than what you’re learning.

Barnett tells how a higher education is unsettling and that no matter what, you are not going to have your final answer. Nussbaum talks about how the educational traditions of the United States emphasise on “the active participation of the child inquiry and questioning”. They both see the idea that there is so much more than just education to education. The U.S. education systems use all elements and all different subjects to open doors after doors of new things to those it interests. There is always going to be endless questions and endless answers. This keeps a person wanting more, craving to learn more. A higher education is a ladder you never reach the top of.