by Beverly Burris
Daily Lobo Columnist
Faculty Senate President
I've been returning to school in the early fall and late summer for more than four decades, first as an elementary school student in the 1950s, through many levels of schooling, as a secondary school teacher for a time and for the past 20 years as a professor. I always have fun celebrating the new year on Jan. 1, but the real beginning of my year coincides with the beginning of school. It is a time of great optimism, full of momentous choices and enormous potential for change and growth.
The beginning of the fall term at a university is similar and different from all those previous first days of school. There is still the freshness of a new beginning, a clean slate with no mistakes on it yet, but some of the thrill of new school supplies wears off over the years.
The biggest difference, though, is that higher education is voluntary. Students choose to continue their education, or they don't. There is much more freedom to choose courses, a major and specific teachers.
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Why choose to continue one's education? Why choose a university over a community college? Why choose a particular major?
National polls say that most students choose to pursue post-secondary education in the hope that it will eventually translate into a better job and greater lifetime earnings. Indeed, there is a demonstrated correlation between education and income, with college graduates averaging twice the lifetime earnings of high-school graduates.
To focus too narrowly on the vocational payoff of higher education, though, would be a big mistake. The choice of a major should reflect your inner predisposition, a sense of your talents and your calling, not merely a judgment about which field is the most marketable.
Indeed, to choose a major for reasons of perceived marketability might well lead one astray. Fields that are in demand today might be glutted in a few years. More importantly, if students pursue their pocketbook rather than their inclination, they often find that education can become a chore rather than a joy; they don't achieve as much and are more likely not to finish their degree.
If they do complete their degree and are able to use it to get that desirable job, they may find that they don't really desire the job after all.
In order to get the most out of university life, you have to get out of the compulsory schooling mindset. You have freedom to choose - you can follow your own direction, even if it leads you into courses whose marketability is not readily apparent. You have freedom to explore new paths and meet new people. You have freedom to learn not only who you are, but who you can be.
I once interviewed a young college graduate and asked him what effect his college education had on him.
"I think it taught me the importance of my life," he said.
Know it now - your life is important, and your education is important. Make wise choices, o
nes not driven by others' preferences or perceived marketability, but by your own heart.
