Life Lesson/Advice

A Dream of Lifelong Learning in Higher Education

Learning is the greatest purpose of human life

Buckminster Fuller, the great architect, spoke at a seminar in Harvard Square in the early 1980s, that I attended: “Higher Education is Failing American Youth”.

Is The Value Received Worth The Ridiculously High Tuition Costs?

If everyone could spread those costs (such as $20,000 to $80,000 a year) over a lifetime, then most people would be working and could afford the costs as they receive learning much more related to life. Ponder how much easier that would be for every family, especially low and middle-income families. They would not have to depend on parents, or taxpayers (Financial Aid from the government) or go into debt from huge long-term interest.

In a Boston Globe Letter to the Editor, 9/29/21. “What about education? We need to change the education system so you spend less time when you are young learning to be hyper-specialized and more life-long learning. The jobs that will still be here will require face-to-face skills and making networks of human interactions work.” I would add, when young and not working yet you do not know what you need to know and professors who have not been out in various fields, do not know what you need to know. When working in a field you learn what you need to know and attend classes simultaneously to learn that.

In Boston Globe, 10.24.21, Argument, Natalie Higgins talks of the problem of high tuition costs: “Average student loan burden of $33,356 in Massachusetts … and more than 855,000 Massachusets residents with student debt.” However, she says, “Massachusetts colleges and universities should be tuition-free”. Charles Chieppo. Pioneer Institute, in the Argument, says: “NO! There are better ways than to make things free … and forcing taxpayers to cover the entire amount, $1.6 Billion in lost revenue. It would be a far better idea to provide relief based on need.” I would add that life-long learning could make it easy for low and middle-income families to afford and would teach students to take responsibility for their own learning and lives.

In the Boston Globe, 12/12/21, Letter To the Editor, Charles H. Gessner wrote, “Even when it’s ‘free’, someone has to pay for it. It would be a positive change if the Globe headline writers, reporters, and columnists adjusted their writing style … [refering to bus routes] The MBTA routes that will not charge will be subsidized by other routes and taxpayers. They are not free”. [The same is true of higher education.]

Work Experience Is The Best Teacher — Especially Teaching Responsibility

James Sullivan in the Boston Globe explained: “For Kelefa Sanneh the world opened up not behind the gates of Harvard Yard but inside the Brighton warehouse of Newbury Comics. The year that he took off from school, during which he spent 40 hours a week putting price stickers on compact discs, would prove to be his real education.”

My brother, Donald Willett, who worked with me on my NSF grants, is an example of life-long learning — building expertise of software engineering through work experience while taking classes to achieve his bachelor's and master's degrees. He wanted to go on to a doctor's degree because he loved learning, but the university said no, he had to give up his work life and be a full-time student (?) Instead, he became a quality assurance manager leading software engineers. A doctor’s degree would not have given greater value to his life, than his work experience.

In my life (Shirley Willett) I became a garment factory stitcher at age 16 (1949). That experience taught me the best knowledge of products in the fashion industry, and how to make patterns that could be stitched in a factory — and how to be a successful fashion design and manufacturer for 20 years, 1960 to 1980. However, It did create some problems in college with the fashion design teacher, 1953/1954, because I knew so much more than she did — and students often came to me. I learned a lot from the art teachers, however, and they gave me a scholarship. The fashion teacher was angry at me and tried to take it away, but the art teachers helped me win it back.

In the New York Times, “The Blue-Collar Fight…”, Farah Stockman says, “For many Americans without college degrees, who make up two-thirds of adults … boils down to one thing: access to well-paying factory jobs. … To Shannon Mulcahy, liberation meant having a right to the same jobs men had in the factory. … She took pride in the fact that she didn’t depend on a man- even and especially Uncle Sam.” Farah Stockman ends her article with: “The only way to knit this country back together is for the decision-makers, nearly all of whom have college degrees, to reconnect with those of the working class who make up the majority.” And I add,” The way to reconnect is for all workers to be getting their college degrees through life-long learning.

Parenting

Parents should be taught how to parent. It is NOT a natural ability. The most important thing for parents is to teach and motivate their children to love learning, so they want to continue learning for the rest of their lives — both in the classrooms and in life’s experiences. Learning is the purpose of physical life on Earth

Steps Toward Life-long Learning

In the Boston Globe, 11/27/21, Alexa Gagosz writes, “ Michael Croft, CEO and founder of Volute, wants to transform business schools into Life-long learning centers, that bridge academia and industry. … ‘Our mission is to help schools move away from the one-and-done transactions and learning into a true life-long learning model that has a residual subscription. We’re reinventing that business school model.” This is a fantastic step. Hopefully, I dream it will happen with all higher learning.

“Amar Kumar, the founder of KaiPod, which will operate pod learning centers in the Boston area and eventually all over the country”, says Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe, 12/13/21. “Learning pods combine online training with in-person instruction. …In small physical classrooms where they can socialize and help each other. …In a learning pod, students can be of different ages and grade levels.” It would be great if higher education could develop learning pods in life-long learning.

Life-long learning could solve so many social and economic problems when all people are learning while experiencing problems in their lives.