College education broadens perspective

This letter is in response to the letter submitted by Sam Luikens (Dec. 31) regarding the expense and scam of college degrees. I was disheartened to read his words. Yes, obtaining college degrees is expensive, but it is not a scam. Times have changed. I grew up believing that my educational enrichment would lead me to a meaningful career with financial security. We have certainly learned that financial security can be illusive, in spite of hard work, diligence, and perseverance in the workplace; not only due to any lack we find facing ourselves, but from the dubious efforts and seeking for quick gain of those not interested in putting in time and integrity to achieve their own personal goals.

I would never counsel young people not to seek higher education. Academic instruction in institutions of higher learning helps grow a person’s mind and perspective. It can afford opportunities for travel and for learning about other peoples and cultures. It opens doors to world literature, world religion and world history. Oftentimes our current situation shoves into our awareness our country’s leadership that is lacking in understanding of the history of other countries, their experiences through the ages, and how they have come to their present perspectives and biases.

While in college earning my degree in world literature, I read Beowulf, a classic, about a country plagued with an enemy that came out of nowhere and at unexpected times. The community had no resources to fight and overcome this foe to their security. They hired an outsider, who ultimately allowed a few deaths to occur to see how the enemy worked. Finally, he was able to slay the beast and save the land. The lesson learned was to know the enemy, their style, and their motivation. The movie, Independence Day with Will Smith is the Beowulf story in a science fiction format. Today our beloved USA faces a threat by another country with a very different perspective and history, a culture of clans and tribal warfare. We do not understand this kind of threat or the experiences of the people living under such inhumane circumstances, people who feel helpless, are poor, who are unschooled, undereducated, and who only have their experiences and the resulting emotions and fears to ground them.

While college degrees may not offer all the answers we each seek to maintain our own security, advanced educational opportunities open the doors to help us confront many of the obstacles we face in our lives through exposure beyond our own experiences, through greater understanding of others who share our planet, to humanitarianism, conservation, geology, agriculture, philosophy, psychology, and science and mathematics:  all subjects that expand and deepen our self awareness and in the end affords us all a chance to be open minded toward achieving solutions for the benefit of all.

KRYSTLE SHAPIRO

Sandpoint