Nancy Kaffer: School reform dangerous if you don't understand value of education
There’s a fight brewing over the heart and soul of public education.
In one corner, we have Gov. Rick Snyder, who says he believes that the point of an education is to connect the student with a job. It’s not a crazy notion — it worked for Snyder, after all; the governor amassed a slew of degrees at an astonishingly young age, and rode his academic success to the top of three fields.
And in the other, we have the traditional education system, fighting to hold on to a place for the humanities, for art, music, literature and philosophy, subjects whose value isn’t always measurable in dollars or job titles.
(Full disclosure: I studied English literature and writing at a small Jesuit liberal arts college, which has nothing to do with political liberalism and a lot to do with the idea that a well-rounded, well-educated person who can think is a person who is equipped to be a productive member of society, whether in material or intellectual terms. So now you know which corner I’m in.)
Objectively, there’s nothing wrong with the idea that an education, particularly a college education — for which the cost is increasing every year — should yield material success. And it’s also not wrong