In one report, he said, ”Perhaps the most fundamental value of a liberal education is that it makes life more interesting.”
”It allows you to think things which do not occur to the less learned,” he went on, and ”it makes it less likely that you will be bored with life.”
He added, ”By analogy it makes the difference between the traveler who understands the local language and the traveler to whom the local language is a jumble of nonsense sounds.”
—From a NY Times obituary of former Yale University President Kingman Brewster (1919-1988) and one of my favorite descriptions of the value of a college education–KSH
A related quote:
Education is what allows you to confront the
prospect of change with zest instead of fear.
Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN (Ret)
Well, it depends. Many well educated persons in possession of inquiring minds, insatiable curiosity, and the ability to engage with and learn from folks from all walks of life never made it through grade school…some never even learned to read. On the other hand, there are people walking around with earned PhD’s who have not an ounce of common sense, have knowledge and interest only in their own narrow field, are rude, boring, and so self satisfied that they consider anyone who is differently educated beneath their notice. What one takes to college has much bearing on what takes away from college. I value a college education, I gave some of my best years to getting one and trying to motivate my students to acquire the same, but I’ve participated in too many faculty meetings and seen too many students spend their four or five years successfully delaying growing up to leave President Brewster’s statement unquestioned. Frances Scott