In the last few decades, there has been an increasing attack on the commercialization of Higher education in the United States. Critics have responded to this development by claiming the system to be broken and biased, mostly functioning for money while maintaining outdated instructional practices. At the same time, Critics have bemoaned the college as an unnecessary institution that is focusing more on making profits rather than imparting knowledge. This has seen people motivated to join college based on job market view rather than a passion for intellect. In the midst of this criticism, reformists have also emerged defending college as a priceless good that needs little modification. Andrew Delbanco is a reformer who defends the institution of higher education while offering a solution to its demise. His book “College: what it was, is and should be” used the term college to refer to many different institutions of higher learning. He describes his vision of higher education that is supported by Aristotle’s philosophy of education and knowledge acquisition.
In the book, Delbanco legitimizes a case for obtaining a college degree using economic, political and intellectual perspectives. He demonstrated that the value of college education cannot be measured only in economic terms, instead of what the school can do for individuals. 1 Delbanco believes in the importance of having an educated citizenry to preserve democracy of the country depends on protecting the institution. He Claims College can boost the democratic engagement of a student by allowing them to exercise democracy and learn to engage with different viewpoints. As such, the institution is too important to give up despite the challenges and politics.
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Delbanco went back to the historical argument in reminding his readers that college is built on the core ideals of rejecting social rankings such as wealth and evaluate people based on their inward character or soul. He offered a trenchant defense of liberal education, stating that a real college education should be made available for as many people as possible to remain central to the democratic promise of America. 2 This ideal will guide an understanding that all students deserve and are worthy of getting an education. As such, he stated that colleges should provide opportunities for all students to discover and pursue their passions. He believes that the central role of college is to accommodate the needs of students by providing opportunities to create individual desires and dreams while enhancing the economic strengths of a county
He also explores other aspects of liberal education, including the ability to help students find purpose meaning and happiness in life. Delbanco views college as a time to prepare for a future job and get meaningful lives. He asserted that college should be a place to help and guide students into learning and accepting the alternate point of views that are crucial in a democratic society. This description aligns with Aristotle’s philosophy about human nature and quest for happiness. Aristotle believes a person achieves happiness if they fulfill their functions in the best way possible, thus concerned with final causality. 3
Delbanco discussed his college ideals by lamenting how its demise has been debated in the current lexicon to mean nothing about higher education. He mourns the passing of the college idea while looking towards reclaiming the original idea of college education. Delbanco in the essay believes little has changed in higher education despite technological advances or a change in demographics and student’s habits and celebrated it. He states that college is a hedge against utilitarian values that satisfy the human craving for contracts with works of art. At the same time, Delbanco noted that teaching is the only profession that has no productivity advance since Socrates, with a similar look today as it was many years ago.
Delbanco gestures on the role of colleges to prepare students for the future, but he primarily focuses on how it can help students grapple with the past. While there is nothing wrong in assisting students to make sense of the history and how it shaped the present, liberal education should focus more on helping students prepare to solve problems of the future and those facing the society. 4 This agrees with Aristotle who asserted that virtue was necessary to achieve happiness, though not enough since a virtuous person requires adequate social constructs to feel satisfied. As such, Aristotle believes happiness is not just a condition of the soul, but its intellectual activity as guided by virtue.
Delbanco’s essay applied to the philosophy of Aristotle regarding education when he believed training aims to acquire both moral and intellectual virtues. His philosophy asserted that the practice of learning should be infused with a clear philosophy of life. It should have a profoundly ethical and political concern by determining what is good or right rather than what is correct. In the book, Delbanco brought together his ideas about equality, community and the value of education in imploring individuals to protect the college institution. He believes college should aim towards transmitting knowledge from the past and use it to teach students about the present and future. 5 While he is pessimistic about the future of the college idea, he offered policies that could reclaim its value by envisioning as a place with small classrooms led by engaging professors with inquiry and discussions.
Delbanco’s most important claim in the article is that the capacity of liberal education should look towards challenging students to find themselves in more than just pursuing self-interests. This idea reflects a philosophy by Aristotle, who placed emphasis on all-round and balanced development in forming the body, mind, and soul and saw learning as something that happens throughout life across different ages. According to Aristotle, individuals have to cultivate their success, which should be a central purpose of human life and a goal in itself. 6 He also stated that knowing good alone is not enough to make someone right, and an individual must choose to act appropriately. As such, achieving virtue is not automatic and does not grant acquiring the virtue.
Aristotle contributed to several aspects of the contemporary world including achieving happiness and purpose of learning. For example, he believed that thoughts are superior to senses and that they are the ultimate truth and explanation of everything. Aristotle argued that universal forms are not necessarily attached to each idea, creating a basis of empiricism. He thus favored direct observation of experience to prove a concept. Similarly, Delbanco asserted that teaching at its best could be a generative way by which people cheat death by giving witness to the next generation on how to live. He stated that one of the challenges facing colleges today is the collapse of consensus about what students ought to know. 7 He later demonstrated what he thinks students in colleges should know the virtues of the lie.
According to Aristotle, a person could gain knowledge by observing the world around them, and thus the condition of a person cannot be an obstacle to learning, rather an aid in education. 8 Delbanco also stated that failure to integrate teaching into graduate programs is a non-issue throughout much of academia as few seem to care. He claimed this cycle could only be broken by fighting to provide student-centered doctoral education that prepares scholars to be both researchers and teachers. At the same time, he mentioned much about an aspect of integrative learning that involves students drawing ideas and perspectives from multiple disciplines to solve hard problems. I think liberal education should help a person to become a better problem solver and creator of solutions
Aristotle believed form do not exist independently or out of space and time. Instead, he described the type of an object based on the purpose given by the designer. As such, everything has a purpose, and a person will take a form based on how the instructor directs them. Similarly, Delbanco claimed the right teacher must always be a professor in the root sense of the word, and someone professing a faith. He believed humanism has existed by imitating beliefs and values that are considered right and influencing others to believe. Liberal art colleges struggling to nurture citizens have looked towards balancing the career preparation of a student with more profound challenges.
Reformers believe a college education is a valuable good and one of the great innovations to come from the United States. It is a place where young people get a chance to navigate waters between adolescence and adulthood and thus should help students as they seek to understand the world around them. Delbanco also stated that college should play a crucial role in instilling certain qualities of mind and heart essential for reflective citizenship. Delbanco also stated that educators who focus more on profits loses their opportunity to attune students to the enduring rewards of liberal education. Instead, he claimed money-mindedness could only reinforce the notions of merit and forget the cardinal principle of education. Delbanco advocated for use of courage and selflessness rather than merit to achieve success. 9 In this regard, he claimed rewards through meritocracy can only deceive a person about their true weaknesses and strengths.
He sees a problem in trying to make research the issue in college and implores readers to have a different perspective. According to Delbanco, there is a way of teaching and research can work together. As such, the study is not the problem here, rather universities using colleges as a way of subsidizing the research. The author stated that universities are used to using college teaching to support research training which marginalizes the education of undergraduates. He instead argues that there should be a clear line dividing research and education. At this point, the author introduced the relationship between universities and colleges regarding teaching and research. Delbanco drew a sharp distinction between college and university education by claiming college focuses on preparing students for the future by transmitting past information and knowledge while universities focus on creating new awareness and supersede the history. 10 He explains that college is focused on educating undergraduates and society at large while universities are focused on training professionals and furthering the practice of scientists.
However, while Delbanco acknowledged the continuous power of science, he claimed its principle of progress does not translate well into other areas of human life. For example, he stated that science does little in explaining how to shape a life or face an event in life such as death. The author also noted that science rarely describes how to form an entity, face death or about the meaning of love and scope of responsibility. He claimed a focus on such questions should part of every college education because they apply to the real life of students rather than hypothetical questions. In this regard, he asserts that science cannot always provide a solution to life problems.
In conclusion, Delbanco’s book provides a thorough and critical look at the travails of American colleges using a combination of vital and pragmatic realism. He appears optimistic about the future of college and argues that everyone needs to think critically about college and liberal education. His profound ideas resemble the philosophy of Aristotle regarding the pursuit of knowledge and happiness. In the book, Delbanco offered a policy that will push higher education including expanding the scope of teaching. His other solutions include making college more affordable for all students while focusing on teaching virtues that can help the society at large.
Works Cited
Brumbaugh, Robert S., and NATHANIEL M. LAURENCE JR. "Aristotle's philosophy of education." Educational Theory 9, no. 1 (1959): 1-15.
Delbanco, Andrew. College: What it was, is, and should be . Vol. 25. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012.
Lears, Jackson. "The radicalism of tradition: Teaching the liberal arts in a managerial age." The Hedgehog Review 2, no. 3 (2000): 7-23.
