Reflections on Higher Education - on the Occasion of Hannah's Matriculation at North Park

A few months ago I began posting on Facebook my thoughts about higher education. I framed the comments as intimate words to my gifted niece, Hannah Hawkinson, who began her undergradaute studies at North Park University this past fall.  A few friends have asked me to put these thoughts together - so here they are:  ten thoughts about sucking the marrow out of one's college experience. They are unedited and simply cut-and-pasted from Facebook.  [Note:  yes...hell has frozen over and I have begun a blog.  I have no idea if I will ever post on it...but here it is.]

Reflection #1: Pursuing what one loves is key to academic and human flourishing, for God's call is found where we experience joy. At the same time, we must make a real difference in the real world where our gifts will find expression and grow into a vocation. Key to allowing for the truth of both of these principles is experiential learning. Use your summers, internships, and elective coursework with strategic care so that classroom learning is matched by real-life, practical experiences.

Reflection #2: A college education is not a "life parenthesis" or period of mysterious "have-tos" where one follows the rules in order to get the necessary letters after one's name so as to get a job. Rather, an undergraduate education involves a process of intellectual, moral and spiritual formation that is essential in one's life development. While in college you begin a series of habits which you will continue to foster in life so as to live the good life and develop vocational excellence. While in college, one learns and begins to practice the habits of disciplined study, careful analysis, clear communication, thoughtful critique, persuasive argument, and artistic creativity. A college education is not something one endures, but something one engages at every level so as to develop good habits which will flourish into maturity as they are practiced into adulthood.

Reflection #3: Books and ideas matter. The record of human learning has been written down and should never be dismissed as mere "book learning." Never let anyone demean the classroom - it is sacred space. At the same time, we must engage fully what we read with our whole lives so that transformation can occur. As a young adult who attended elementary school in a white flight Oklahoma suburb, college in Wheaton, Illinois, and seminary in Essex County, Massachusetts, I first encountered the evils of racism in literature. Alan Boesak, Martin Luther King, Jr., Reinhold Niebuhr, and Malcolm X taught me the contours of race; and a thoughtful ethics professor, Stephen Mott, helped me understand the concepts of systemic injustice and social construction. Challenged and off balance, I embarked on a journey in community to think and live differently. The process began with a passionate teacher and powerful literature.

Reflection #4: You are your own best advocate. Students must trust their teachers, but also show initiative and over-turn every rock in vocational exploration. Ask every question to every wise person you might find while in high school and college. Develop a network of trusted friends, colleagues, mentors and teachers and explore their minds as you find your way forward in life. It is important to choose the right school with the right programs (academic and extra-curricular) to prepare you for your life's vocation. However, no set of programs will provide all the direction you need. Ask. Network. Explore. Follow your nose. Find correction, and keep moving.

Reflection #5: Study abroad. Beg, steal, borrow, and sacrifice in order to spend at least one full semester abroad while you are in college. If possible, spend time not with a group of Americans from your own university, but in a group where you are the only American; and spend that time in a country where English is not the dominant language. Learning to negotiate another culture on its own terms, and to make friends in another place, is the best way to grasp God's global diversity of cultures. You will see not only a new culture, but you will be invited to see your own with fresh eyes. You will understand the American immigrant when you are yourself a stranger in a foreign country. Global citizens will challenge your notions of American exceptionalism, and you will be more prepared to engage the global marketplace of commerce and ideas. Plus, you will have a chance to travel and see the world.

Reflection #6: Unless you are completely convinced you are gifted in a specific technical area that will drive your vocation, go to a liberal arts college.  There exists no trade-off between the "liberal arts" and "professional education" as preparation for "getting a job." Since the era classical Greece, the liberal arts were those subjects considered to be essential for a citizen to engage and lead in civic life. The goal of a liberal arts education has always been practical: to form wise, insightful, virtuous citizens who can be trusted to lead and serve the commonwealth. Even the supposed "ivory tower" understanding of the university as "pure research" with no apparent application to praxis is an unfair depiction of learning. Without so-called "pure research" and theoretical reflection, there would be no space travel, no mobile phones, few medical cures, and no computers. While the end game of research is not always clear at the start of the process, our best-and-brightest need the tools and resources to push the boundaries of knowledge. If you are frustrated with "impractical" education that does not lead to a "job," your frustration is not with the liberal arts or research universities, but with ineffective schools and programs that teach badly, devalue the student experience, refuse to recognize the practical needs of our world, and leave students with no moral compass. The outcomes of proper, thoughtful and rigorous liberal arts education are directly applicable to the "work world": critical thinking, relational skill, public speaking, effective written communication, argument, analysis of sources, care not to rush to judgment, thorough research, scientific method, experiment...the list goes on. I would argue strongly that the liberally educated - if they are educated well at the right institutions - are much better prepared for "a job" in our modern world than a professionally educated tradesman who learns a particular skill at the expense of civic formation.

Reflection #7. Numbers are important, no matter what your college major. All college students should graduate with a basic understanding of personal finance, our national and global economies, retirement planning, the stock market, and basic accounting. As you grow and emerge into leadership in your chosen vocation, no matter what your field, you are going to be asked to read a spreadsheet and engage in budget planning. If you ever go into business for yourself, you are going to have to run the business with attention to the bottom line. Many lives and businesses suffer from lack of business sense. There are many ways to learn these skills, ranging from personal study to college courses, internships, or part-time jobs. My advice: dedicate two of your college electives to Macro-Economics and Accounting. In addition, in your internship, ask to become acquainted with that side of the business or organization you work for. Those experiences will provide you with the basics, and you can move forward from there.

Reflection #8:  In humility, trust your faculty members and do the work, even when you are not sure why you are doing it.  When I was a young professor, I had a student ask me to read a paper he was submitting to another class entitled, “Why the Students Should Run Chapel.”  His basic thesis was that students should run chapel because, “We know what we want.”  He was a good student and I am sure he was expecting me to voice confident approval of his work.  When he came back to my office to discuss the paper, I responded, “If you know everything, then why are you in college?  Do you honestly believe that chapel is about your preferences, and that you have nothing to learn from the adult professionals who have dedicated their lives to working with college students?”  The way forward is sometimes blurry, but the vision of the liberal arts is centuries old.  So, when you are studying the Pythagorean Theorem, statistics, ancient Mesopotamia, the social construction of race, hermeneutics, the synoptic problem, nutrition, Occam’s Razor, the periodic table, the constituent parts of a cell, micro-economics, anatomy, the stages of human development, neuroses, Greek plays, post-modernism, or “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” DO YOUR WORK!  Give each subject all you have, and the connections that unify knowledge will develop over time. 

Reflection #9:  Make the most of your college experience. Not everyone has the same economic means, so many must work part-time jobs in college. To the extent that you are able, suck the marrow out of your college years. Ten practical tips follow. (Note: Some of these bits of advice assume you are going to school in Chicago - this began as advice for my niece who is a student at North Park.) 1) Minimize your expenses. Lose the car payment, shop at thrift stores, eat in the cafeteria if you are on a meal plan. Minimize all but necessary expenses so that you can make the most of campus friendships and local opportunities. 2) Do not bring a television to campus. There will be a TV in the dorm for those rare "can't miss it" events. Don't waste time viewing programs about people in the bayou wrestling gators - your time is too precious. 3) Don't bring a video-game system to school. This is an absolute waste of time. 4) Minimize your non-academic internet time, giving yourself a "screen time" budget that you stick to. 5) Join clubs and extra-curricular organizations. Make one of those specific commitments to a group that focuses on ministry in your local community. Teach a kid to read, tutor those who need help, fix up a local community house. 6) Go out with groups of friends to see the city. Chicago is home to some of the world's finest museums, parks, affordable restaurants, and other tourist destinations. Rather than sit in your room while gazing at a screen, go out and see the city. 7) See lots of people of both sexes, and be careful about establishing an exclusive dating relationship. College is for exploration and experimentation, and settling prematurely into a relationship can lead to future regret over a truncated college experience. 8 ) Attend school sporting events. Cheer on your friends, and enjoy the time together. 9) Use your summers wisely. For your three college summers, consider giving one to service, one to travel, and one to wage-earning - you pick the order. 10) Play intramural sports - it helps you stay in shape, and gives you time with friends.

Reflection # 10:  Do it because you love it. Work your butt off.  Treasure the chance to learn.  Discipline yourself to do the work, even when it is challenging or the end is not clear.  Learn in community.  Be generous to your friends.  Give some of your time to those less fortunate.  Delight in God’s world from as many perspectives as possible.  Give your life, your education, and your future to God, and engage in the hard work necessary to develop into a knowledgeable and skilled person capable of making the world a more just place.