This week I would like to go back in time to our discussion two weeks ago when Dean Brady asked the class something along the lines of “Should everyone have the right to a college education?” (I apologize if that is not the exact wording).
My immediate response to Dean Brady’s question was that, yes everyone should have a right to a college education. After further reflection I realize it is not that easy.
College as it is now is not a right and it should not be viewed as one. Getting a college education is a privilege. Sometimes however, I think it is confused for a right. I know that I have definitely made this mistake in the past. I come from a family and a community where going to college is a very normal and expected thing to do after high school. I come from a family and a community where as soon as you are a junior or senior in high school, people want to know about SATs, college applications and possible majors. I come from a family and community where not going to college is frowned upon. I admit that for a while I assumed that this was just the norm, that everyone’s parents encouraged them to go to college and that it was the norm for them to go to college after high school. For a while, without realizing it, I thought I had a right to a college education and I treated it that way.
It took me a while to realize that getting a college education is not necessarily the norm in the U.S. and especially not in many other parts of the world. Many people don’t have access to education after high school (or even access to a high school education in the first place). There are many young people out there who are not encouraged to pursue higher education like I and many of my peers were and still are.
Getting back to the original question, should everyone have a right to a college education, I guess I don’t really have a clear answer.
I do not believe that college should be made into a right because many rights tend to be under-appreciated and sometimes abused. Certain people can be excluded from rights as history has proven and we as humans feel that we are entitled to them. When we feel entitled to something we feel that we don’t have to work for it. That it should just be given to us. Higher education is definitely something that should have to be worked for.
On the other hand, privileges can cause many of the same problems. Privilege is under-appreciated and often abused. Privilege is invisible to those that have it. It excludes people. College should not continue to be a privilege if it is not recognized as one by those who have it and if those that have the privilege of going to college don’t appreciate it.
I don’t know what a college education should be considered. My thoughts seem to be getting murkier as I continue to write this post.
I do believe that access to a college education should be expanded so that more people can have the opportunity to get a college degree. But how do we go about doing that without making people feel entitled to a college education?