Monday, October 22, 2007

Hey, Dept of Education - the Janitor Understands Better than You Do!

In a famous scence in the movie, Good Will Hunting, Will (a janitor) decides to put a Harvard boy who's been lording it over his blue collar buddies, making them look the fool, in his place. Will bests this pedant at his own game by showing off the superior body of knowledge he's given himself without attending college formally. In doing so he puts the real worth of University for MOST attendees in perspective stating:

" See the sad thing about a guy like you, is in about 50 years you’re gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you’re gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life. One, don't do that. And two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a fuckin’ education you coulda' got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the Public Library."

The best retort his trounced intellectual adversary can come up with is "Yeah, but I 'll have a degree, and you'll be serving my kids fries at a drive-thru on our way to a skiing trip."

Will smiles and says "Yeah, maybe. But at least I won't be unoriginal. "

(complete dialogue available at: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Good_Will_Hunting )


Questions:

  • If a motivated, un-schooled janitor is better educated than a Harvard attending drone who's plodding his way through the lock step knowledge transfer drudgery of a degree that means little more to him than making more money than the next guy, then should University be the standard for TRULY being educated?
  • And how does it work when EVERYONE goes to college; if a degree is no longer a hammer with which to defeat your economic adversaries (because they are ALL now your classmates) then why go?
  • What's the real purpose of a University Education? Should all go? After all, even though we may all agree that all should have the right to go, is that the same as ensuring that they all do?

Clearly the framers of the plan described in the article below need to do a little of the sort of thinking that Will Hunting, janitor, would prescribe!

Mark

From: Boston.com NEWS

"Plan requires high schoolers to apply to college to get diploma"
"October 20, 2007
AUGUSTA, Maine --A state law encouraging high school seniors to continue their education by completing at least one postsecondary school application took effect last month, but Maine's top education official is looking to take the approach a step further.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron proposes a requirement that seniors apply to college before becoming eligible for a diploma. The change in state rules on graduation requirements would require approval by the Legislature..."

Read complete article at: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/10/20/plan_requires_high_schoolers_to_apply_to_college_to_get_diploma/

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