JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Voices
avoid the danger of wasting your
education. I quote another college president, John B. Watson
(1869-1942), the first president
of Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College,
predecessor to the University
of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, at a
time when African Americans
were often shunted to vocational
studies rather than encouraged
to pursue the liberal arts.
President Watson said, “The
first aim of a good college is not
to teach books, but the meaning
and purpose of life. Hard study
BOBBY
FONG
and the learning of books are only
a means to this end. We develop
power and courage and determination and we go out to achieve
Truth, Wisdom and Justice. If we
do not come to this, the cost of
schooling is wasted.”
Please don’t waste the cost of
your schooling. Developing mastery over a body of knowledge will
enable you to make a living after
graduation. But as important as
knowledge is, if that is all you expect from college, you will have
missed the larger ends of your education. Learn how to make a life
of purpose, wherein your personal
flourishing is intertwined
with the welfare of others.
HUFFINGTON
07.22.12
Some skills
and habits
will always
have value.