What Will You Do With That Degree?

Education is big business. It is easily one of the largest expenditures in any municipal, provincial or federal budget. Look at the scale and wealth of colleges across the US and Canada and you’ll see physical proof of education as business. If money represents cultural values, education is near the top.

But what is an education for? Do we know what we are trying to achieve? Too often, our assumptions rest on deeper philosophical commitments, each with their own vision of human flourishing.

Education as Maximizing Earning Potential (Gary Becker)

We default to this vision of education each time we ask “but how will you get a job with that degree” or when universities advertise the earning potential for each major. We treat education like the 1980s board game, The Game of Life—pick a career out of a box and then collect rent on it for the ensuing decades. This is also why governments view grants as an investment in human capital—lucrative careers produce more future tax revenue.
And practical realities always matter. We need to work and pay bills. I would counsel any student against taking on vast debt for a degree in art history that can’t be paid for. But there’s a negative side as well. Do we not exist for something more than generating revenue? Are we mere cash cows? If my child makes vast sums of money but lives as a fool, I have not succeeded as an educator. Too many people in mid-life achieve career success, make their money, and yet lack fulfillment or the wisdom to answer the critical questions—what is a person for, what is human success, and how will I know when I achieve it?

Education as Guiding Nature (Rousseau, Marie Montessori)

Another framework believes that babies enter the world as innocents; it’s society that corrupts them. This fits with the painfully true observation that education converts innately curious toddlers into slouchy young adults that “hate math, history, and reading.” The solution, according to this view, is for educators to stay out of the way. “Make space for self-directed learning” the advice goes. No-one knows better what to learn and how to do it than the student themselves…,” and so on.
But Christianity affirms that there is truth, not discoverable by any individual person, which must be passed down to each generation. Conservatism affirms that the best insights have been time-tested and proven in the rigorous test of generations that preceded us. And a biblical anthropology affirms that while society is corrupt, we are not born as innocents nor will we find truth on our own.

Education for Future Voters (John Dewey)

Dewey’s progressive education arose in the background of American democracy. Every young student is a future voter. An electorate that better understands the issues and can sort through proper values that lead to better societies. And truly, democracy can only continue if people evaluate prudently rather than voting themselves a grant from the public treasury. But do educators share our vision of what a good society would look like or how to get there? That leads naturally to a more recent and far more pernicious vision of education.

Education as Creating Advocates (Paulo Freire)

Far too much post-secondary education in the liberal arts has collapsed into creating advocates for contemporary causes. Classes offering a feminist reading of the French Revolution or a gay perspective on the history of the 1960s are concerned with the present, not the past and more occupied with pragmatic outcomes now than pursuing truth. Positively, this approach rightly grasps that education exists to shape the entire person—I also seek to educate my children to become advocates for a timeless cause. But it pursue the wrong vision and advocates the wrong causes. The Christian framework is much richer.

A Christian Vision

Christianity provides many rich resources for thinking about education. Education is a diligent, intentional, structured effort to transfer enduring and eternal convictions from one generation to another. It begins when parents diligently teach God’s words to their children from the time they rise to the time they lie down, putting God’s words on their doorposts (Deut 6). It accepts that the goal of education is wisdom—the practical skill of living life well (Proverbs 1ff), and this begins with fearing the Lord (). It finds its perfect model in Jesus Christ who flourished physically, spiritually, intellectually and socially (Luke 2:52). It’s goal is far more valuable than money, extending rather to every aspect and dimension of human flourishing (Psalm 1). And it culminates when students believe the truth of the gospel, apply it to their own lives, promulgate it faithfully in their communities, celebrate it within their churches, and repeat the process by educating the next generation in the same faith (2 Tim 3:15–16). Robust, Christian education asks not “what will you do with that degree” or “how much money will you make.” Far better, we ask “who are you becoming and what vision of human flourishing are you pursuing?”
Critically, this framework for education expects parents to be the first teachers; it places the home as the most important venue for education. We courageously step forward because we believe that the Word of God is true, the Spirit can enable us, and the gospel is sufficient to change hearts. This is a vision of education worth diligently pursuing.