What is the purpose of a college education? In your reading for this discussion, philosophy professor Kwame Anthony Appiah offers us two models: Is it “utilitarian”- to prepare students for a particular job or career path, or is it “utopian”- shaping students’ character and values to prepare them not just to be good workers, but also good thinkers, good citizens, and positive contributors to our communities? This has been and will continue to be one of the fundamental questions facing the future of higher education in the United States.
In this module, we learned a lot about the value of general education skills, like writing, ethical reasoning, global understanding, and quantitative reasoning, for students’ current and future career paths. Excelsior’s general education career competencies even include “career” right in the title to emphasize their utilitarian value. But is that the only value of general education? Is that the only value of an education in general?
Begin by reading pages 5.1-5.7 of chapter 5 of the webtext on general education and Appiah’s article The College CrossroadsLinks to an external site..
Instructions
Your Initial Post
By Thursday of Module 5, create an initial post of at least 250 words that responds to each of the prompts below:
- Do you believe the true purpose of higher education is utopian or utilitarian in the United States? Why?
- Do you believe colleges and universities have a responsibility to teach general education competencies like global understanding, cultural diversity, and expression? Why or why not?
- Choose one other country to examine. How does the United States’ higher education system differ from this other country in its priorities, values, or end goals for students? Do you think each system prepares students adequately for a globally interconnected society and workforce?
As part of your response, use and cite at least one appropriate outside source* that speaks to higher education in another country.
* You must cite your source in APA reference list formatLinks to an external site. at the bottom of your initial post. Your outside source can come either from the Excelsior LibraryLinks to an external site. or a Google search. However, in either case, make sure to evaluate the source for relevance, authority, currency, objectivity, and verifiability as we learned in Module 3, and do not use sources that are lacking in any of these criteria.