In the movie "Good Will Hunting," Chuckie Sullivan (played by Ben Affleck) is hitting on a few girls in a Harvard Bar when suddenly an egotistical graduate student begins to mock him. Will Hunting (Matt Damon) steps in to save the day by engaging in historical banter, subduing the weaker intellect of the narcissist, but in the dénouement of the brief exchange comes when Will states, “You dropped a $150,000 on an education you could have gotten for a $1.50 in late charges at the public library."
Damon and Affleck won the Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay that year, and they deserved it. This line, in particular, speaks volumes, or should speak volumes, to anyone enrolled in higher education. Most of us are paying through our teeth to get that diploma. But as one of my professors recently said, “All of you are getting a degree, but only some of you are getting an education.” Again, these should be biting words to the majority of us. How dare someone criticize our higher education. Right?
No. I completely agree with both of these criticisms of the so-called higher education system. Most of us college students are doing just that. We go through school just skimming by. We are terrorized by the thought of homework or even seriously investing in classes that will procure us our future jobs. We sit in class mesmerized by LED screens and social media, instead of listening to the person in front who we are paying to give us an education. For those of us students who actually want to learn, it feels as if we should have just skipped the misery and done the library.
What I am trying to push is education; what most people want is employment. Often times people view these two things as mutually exclusive. I ask, why can’t we have both? I am trying to reinvigorate a generation of students who have grown intellectually lazy. Why are we paying and suffering through so much educational formation if we are not to learn anything? Is it just for that paycheck after graduation? If so, that is a pretty selfish goal.
Life is about so much more than money. Money ultimately steps aside to something entirely invaluable—meaning. In my own experience, meaning often goes hand in hand with education. Unless we learn what others have thought and done before us how are we to give meaning to life? Sure, we can offer our own pithy attempts, but why would someone do that when writers like Kierkegaard offer us the fullness of time?
Fellow college students everywhere, relax. It is not too late. We can start receiving an education yet. That is, in reality, what college is for. There are tutors, guidance counselors, deans, professors and even fellow students who want to ensure you receive the education you are paying for. So let us begin by applying ourselves, mind and body, to the education before us in however many years to come.
