Think about that.
The person who articulated that for all of us?
e.e. cummings.
I doubt that most of us are born with the courage to grow up to be who we really are. Most of us are the cowardly lions of the Wizard of Oz. Somewhere we have to pick up that courage.
Where?
Education.
In a real education, institutions and educators will emphasize “the making of a better person ahead of the making of a brighter person, or a better mousetrap.”
I doubt that most of us are born with the courage to grow up to be who we really are. Most of us are the cowardly lions of the Wizard of Oz. Somewhere we have to pick up that courage.
Where?
Education.
In a real education, institutions and educators will emphasize “the making of a better person ahead of the making of a brighter person, or a better mousetrap.”
I wish!
Increasingly, it does not work that way though.
Even we individuals apparently do not care to become better people. We are most fascinated with those who have built "better mousetrap" who are also the ones who have made money from those mousetraps. We are making it increasingly clear that a moneyed person is much more important and valuable than a better person.
Such an attitude gets reflected in education too. In college, it is all about the better mousetrap. College has stopped being the place where students gain the courage to find out who they really are and to then live that life with happiness and contentment.
Increasingly, it does not work that way though.
Even we individuals apparently do not care to become better people. We are most fascinated with those who have built "better mousetrap" who are also the ones who have made money from those mousetraps. We are making it increasingly clear that a moneyed person is much more important and valuable than a better person.
Such an attitude gets reflected in education too. In college, it is all about the better mousetrap. College has stopped being the place where students gain the courage to find out who they really are and to then live that life with happiness and contentment.
Is it any wonder then why students are unhappy. There is a growing body of evidence that students are unhappy. And in the adult world, anxiety and angst seem to dominate over happiness and contentment. Yet, we have a lot more educated population today than ever before. The two sides of the ledger don't balance well.
“I think students are looking for meaning,” Peter Salovey, president of Yale, told Quartz at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.Of course they are looking for meaning. But, apparently most educators don't care.
Increasingly, we run into graduates feeling intense burnout only a few years into their "real" lives outside college. They begin to wonder, and worry, if what they do is not fulfilling, then what?
If only we had equipped them with the ability to prepare for life with a meaning, that provided them with happiness that is intangible!
Oh well ... I tried to do the best that I could. Now, the countdown to the end date has been set by my managers. In a matter of months, I will be referred to as "a former professor."
Such is life!
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