The Problem With Emancipation Education
That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. — Emancipation Proclamation
I had a fascinating meeting today with the immediate past-president of the University of Basel in Switzerland, Antonio Loprieno. We were talking about why the US has such a hard time wrapping its head around any other possibilities aside from university education.
He said, “Look around our campus. It hardly looks like a campus. There are very few students here. We never have a problem with overcrowding.” I realize, now that I’m writing this, that this sounds like a negative, but in fact, I see it as a positive.
It’s true, only about a third of the population here chooses higher education.
“The US,” he continued, “sees higher education as a form of emancipation, whereas, here, it is seen as a right.”
I’ve always worried about higher education being seen as the golden ticket to the upper class or to freedom. We see many schools marketing themselves this way, and unfortunately, low-income, minority and first-generation students often fall prey. So when I heard the word “emancipation” used to describe higher education, it struck a chord.
Take a minute and think about the bedrock of American culture. Anything is possible. Anyone can make it big. I can climb the ladder…
The US has painted a rosy picture of higher education, making it the symbol of an elite lifestyle-a launching pad to the upper class, yet, supply is abundant (too abundant, I would say), so we know that any student, regardless of ability, can pretty much find some college or university willing to take him (at a price, of course). So we have an elite picture with no real elitism at all.
So, what’s the problem in all of this?
American students expect far too much from their university educations and are greatly disappointed when the light at the end of the tunnel is not as bright as they initially thought. They don’t understand why they don’t have the job, the car, the house, the accolades…
Some say this is why there are different levels of colleges and universities. This is why we rank our schools, so that students know which among them is the best; they know which among the masses is truly the golden ticket. And so, we have the rat race we all see happening now.
Imagine for a moment that there were only 500 colleges and universities in the US (there are nearly 4,000 now) and that there was no real qualitative difference among them. Imagine they all cost approximately the same amount and students chose primarily based on which school offered the programs they were interested in and which city it was located in. Oh yes, and imagine this path was not the only one available to students.
This is what we see in Switzerland and other western European countries as well. Indeed, the rankings are emerging here, but still, they are not as quite the religious documents they are in the US. When I talk with Swiss students about why they chose their particular institution, they give me this look that says, “Well, why not?”. It’s as though the university chooses them based on common goals and interests.
At the end of my meeting today, I really had an epiphany about my own country. It became very clear to me why I see the hysteria I sometimes do in my counseling practice. It is as though we are in a state of slavery and we think the only exit is a university education. We think we need to be emancipated.
