Our son will be a senior in high school this fall, and like most parents of seniors, we're thinking a lot about the price of college. He's a bright kid, and his mother and I want him to go to a good school. But we're wondering whether we can afford it.
Apparently we're not alone. A new survey conducted for the American Council on Education shows that parental anxiety over the price of higher education ranks second only to the fear that our kids will become involved with illegal drugs. Americans are more concerned about financing a college education than they are about their kids' becoming a victim of a crime, about their childrens' health care, or about the quality of public schools.
I've assumed all along that our son would go to college, but the prospect of finding $30,000 a year for him to go to a school like Swarthmore makes me ask a fundamental question: What benefit of a college education makes it worth the price?
The economic rewards of higher education are well-documented. In 1996 the median family income for high school graduates was $36,751. But for college graduates it was $61,780 - and professional degrees or Ph.D.s added another $30,000 to $35,000. So it's pretty clear that in order to live the good life, you'd better go to college.
But there's something less tangible that's imparted by higher education - especially the sort of education students receive at Swarthmore. Professor Richard Schuldenfrei illuminates this with his question, "How do you live a good life?" The intangible gift of education - and in a sense its true worth to society - is found in the difference between the good life and a good life.
Beyond the earning power of a degree, beyond the house and the car and the skiing vacation, lie the curiosity, satisfaction, and inherent pleasure of a life informed by wrestling with questions such as Schuldenfrei's, or by considering other fundamental questions posed in science, history, or literature. A good college gives us more than credentials; it makes us think about values, morality, and our place in the world.
Sure, I want my kids to be comfortable, to have good jobs that they like getting up in the morning for. Going to college will help them do that. But I'd also like them to encounter someone like Richie Schuldenfrei, a teacher who will challenge their assumptions about life, encourage them to see that there are ideas behind their actions, that they can live a good life as well.
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