The result of the recent presidential election prompted me to reflect on the education I received at Ohio University. More specifically, I realized how well courses I took in the English and History departments prepared me to understand what happened to our country last week. I remain grateful for the Liberal Arts education that gave me frameworks for thinking critically about the world and understanding it beyond the hype. I deeply appreciate the opportunity both to attend college at an affordable price and to take classes that taught me to do more than prepare for a job.
One of the best History classes I took was Dr. Robert Wheatley’s, Hitler and the Nazis. Even though it’s been 20 years, I still remember specific lectures like the one where he taught us about the Nazi view of women’s roles as “Kinder, Küche, Kirche” (Children, Kitchen, Church). His class was unwieldy at times; no neat PowerPoint slides, not always a clear alignment between learning outcomes and what he was talking about on a given day. But he was always more than prepared and consistently fascinating, making connections between historical and contemporary phenomena, drawing on interdisciplinary sources. Students were welcome to disagree in his class, but everyone knew they better be able to cite evidence to back up whatever view they espoused. No one skipped the reading.
I’m concerned young people today have less of an opportunity to reap the benefits of this kind of education. Not only has college become financially out of reach for many people, today’s students have been taught to treat education as job training. I understand that we all need jobs, so I’m glad I received some of those skills as well. However, if last week taught me anything, it’s that we need learning experiences that go beyond jobs.
Working is a big part of life, but it’s not all we need to learn how to do. Active, engaged citizenship requires the ability to analyze, to assess legitimacy and make reasoned, informed judgments. My English and history courses required considerable writing, so I spent a lot of time determining the credibility of sources and using them to make arguments. As a result, I learned a lot about how to make sense of the world around me.
People my age (43) and older, need to advocate for today’s young people to be able to access a quality education at a reasonable price. We benefited from public subsidies that allowed universities to educate us without charging exorbitant tuition. I realize this goal will only be harder to achieve after last week’s election. We must do a better job of articulating why a solid liberal arts education matters to a functioning democracy. This letter is my humble attempt to do so.
Laura M. Harrison is an associate professor of counseling and higher education in the Patton College of Education at Ohio University.
