Sam Ross/ The Johnsonian
What is the purpose of going to college? Why would you pay thousands of dollars to tolerate four more years of school if you don’t have to? College allows you to leave behind high school, shedding the awkwardness like a cocoon and become a beautifully industrious butterfly. I’m joking of course, but if you think about it, attending university does have the power to help shape people into productive members of society.
The first reason to attend university is one of practicality. Once you leave campus, there won’t be any more dining halls. I know, shocking right? To survive in American society after college graduation, your labor must be valuable enough to trade it for a wage. That is why 55 percent of those polled in the International Student Survey cited wanting a particular job as one of their top three reasons for going to college. You can’t get something for nothing, so making your labor valuable is one of the most important reasons to go to college.
College will also teach you how to be a critical thinker. Thinking critically is not merely something we spontaneously do, it’s an art. That is why Dante and Plato and Thomas Aquinas are all considered great thinkers; they thought outside the normal parameters and made an impact on the world.
The ability to think critically has many advantages. According to Jordan Peterson, an acclaimed clinical psychologist, “…thinking makes you act effectively in the world. Thinking makes you win the battles you undertake, and those could be battles for good things. If you can think, and speak, and write – you are absolutely deadly! … That’s what you’re at university for.” Peterson makes it clear that those who can think more effectively become more effective.
Finally, college will give you the gift of challenging your preconceptions.
A university campus brings together a large number of young people from many different backgrounds. This will provide a free market of ideas in which individuals can be challenged on their beliefs and learn to think for themselves. This means that you will not remain intellectually comfortable. There will be challenges to how you think, but whatever your views may be or become, you should come out stronger at the end of it.
Winthrop’s student code of conduct affirms that “Academic institutions exist for the transmission of knowledge, the pursuit of truth, the development of students, and the general well-being of society.” Currently, Winthrop supports all speech “…so long as it is not of an inflammatory or demeaning nature and does not interfere with the students’ living and study conditions and the administration of its affairs”. From these quotes, we can see that Winthrop is upholding the standard of education that it should be.
Personally, I have had a great experience with in-class discussion at Winthrop. I recently got into a debate on property rights in my political science class. It was awesome. Several people shared their views with honest conviction and I shared mine as well.
The purpose of a university education is to develop what was previously undeveloped. It teaches ideas and skills in order to grow youth into adults who can make the world a better place. That is why I am here, to develop and challenge myself into fulfilling my true potential.
