It could be that with social media and reality TV, start-ups and DIY's, and no one using their degrees anyway, the battle between getting an education and educating ourselves has left us a little unfocused.
We need education for ourselves, and especially for young people; Education about diversity and inclusion and social and emotional learning is essential for healthy personal and professional relationships.
Why do we immerse ourselves for the first 18-25 years of our lives in education preparing ourselves to participate in co-creation, building, imagining, and fully participating in life while also being taught and then believing that somehow as we age we become less than all that?
That means protecting water quality, keeping the internet open, protecting the stability of the climate, and ensuring access to a good education – for ourselves and for those not yet born.
We in education pride ourselves on creating new and better models and methods and strategies and technologies for teaching.
These are the states in which Black students in higher education find ourselves; and, unfortunately, we have to deal with it -- all of it -- as we select and attend colleges.
Many of us did not receive good sex education at school ourselves, and it can make things feel much more difficult than it needs to be".
When we pursue education, we improve ourselves both "economically" and "culturally" (and in other ways); conversely, there's nothing distinctly and intrinsically "economic" or "cultural" about the problems that afflict poor communities, such as widespread drug addiction or divorce.
At this defining moment in American education, we sell ourselves short if we don't strive for schools that graduate students college ready and globally competent -- students who are fully prepared for work and citizenship in the 21st-century global era.
(It doesn't hurt that the quarterback gripping the ball is one of the best ever, but that's a different issue...) This may seem like a tangent, but hear me out: if we in higher education can deflate ourselves a little, we may actually do a better job at what we purport to do.
