There is no shortage of people complaining about higher education today. However, if you look closely, hardly any of those complaints are truly about the fundamental nature of education.
We hear things like “the paper-publishing process could be better”, “more diversity is needed”, and “school is just too darn expensive”. All of these problems are worth talking about, but they are all within the education system.
On the other hand, there is one problem with modern education that makes it rotten to the core: it is too specialized.
What do I mean by too specialized? Simply that, even the best education today only teaches us the minutiae of complex fields like data science, organic chemistry, object oriented programming, and dissecting a human body. But, education completely ignores basic questions about existence and our role on this planet.
In other words, while we can find an endless number of schools that could teach us to write a web app, there are hardly any that truly push students to ask fundamental questions about society. Here, I’m talking about questions like: is our current economic system even sustainable? Or: what is the meaning of life beyond working and reproducing? What do we do about the mass extinctions we are causing?
You might say: study philosophy. But even philosophy or fields like psychology tend to delve into the abstract and the analytical. There is hardly any redefining or thinking about the most fundamental nature of things. Believe me, I’ve read lots of philosophy and psychology and I’ve gone right to the top, all the way to get a PhD in pure mathematics.
This specialized nature of education causes two serious problems. The first is that the very content of all curricula are finely tuned to transform human beings into cogs in our current economic system that primarily encourages consumerism rather than a harmonious existence with the biosphere.
In other words, universities push students to get jobs whose only purpose is to keep our sick and violent system going.
The second problem with specialization is that it indoctrinates students into believing that the only solution to the world’s problems is specialized knowledge and technology. Climate change? Solar panels, fusion power, and better batteries will save us. Just go invent them!
In reality, we need students to spend at least half their time in education on general problems and ideas. This time should be integrated into every class, relating back to the class material. They need to be led in debate and discussion to re-examine every aspect of society, and to believe that they can change it. And, these changes need to go beyond small changes that only help further the current paradigm of economic growth above all else: the changes need to move us towards a truly sustainable culture where all life, both human and nonhuman, lives in harmony.
Right now, universities and colleges are doing a horrible job at getting students to truly think and to figure out their place in the universe. Even the best schools like the Ivy League are all about producing the best cogs in the current unsustainable economic machine. Does every mathematics and computer science class begin with a discussion about ethics? No. Do we ever ask if all this modern technology is actually helping the world? No. Could we please stop and ask ourselves if the pursuit of endless knowledge and new products is a giant waste of time? I hope.
I have no problem with knowledge and of course, I love learning. But there is a limit to everything, a realm past the point of sane, and modern higher education is well beyond that point, lost in the abyss of senselessness. So how about we take a pause from the insanity of endless specialization, and teach young people to truly change the world?