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As graduation season arrives, so do the messages in
commencement addresses celebrating graduates as the promise for the
future. The caps are tossed in the air capturing the euphoria of having
successfully completed four years of college. The graduates are ready to
fulfill their promise. However, in this current time of high unemployment
in America, it may be difficult to do so, at least immediately. Much has
been said, recently, about the difficulties college graduates face
finding jobs that match their education and their abilities.
In the May 19 New York Times, Many
With New College Degree Find the Job Market Humbling, there is an
extensive discussion of college graduates settling for jobs that do not
require a college degree at low salaries - and considering themselves
lucky to find a job of any sort. There is concern, however, that taking
these jobs with no relationship to future goals might make it difficult
to get back on track to the intended career when the economy rebounds.
For some this means a better choice would be to pursue graduate school,
immediately. Others are faced with paying off existing student loans
before they can consider graduate school.
So are these positive commencement exhortations doing our
2011 graduates a disfavor? Tali Sharot a Research Fellow at the Wellcome
Trust Center for Neuroimaging at University College London, shares both
the glass half full and the glass half empty perspectives in answering
this question. Her article, Major
Delusions, appeared in the May 15 New York Times.
Looking at the glass as half full, she postulates that
optimism is a good thing. "Believing a goal is attainable motivates
us to get closer to our dreams." Today's graduates ". . .will
be more successful, healthier and happier if they hold on to positively
biased expectations."
Looking at the glass half empty, Sharot exhorts "cautious
optimism". "Believe you can fly, with a parachute attached, and
you will soar like an eagle."
In these tumultuous times laced with economic crises, many
college graduates may find their college education has not allowed them
to grab the Golden Ring - at least not immediately. Yet, to lose faith in
the value of their education would be short sighted. Today is prelude to
tomorrow. And the optimists, armed with a solid college education, will
believe that tomorrow will be better. They will acknowledge a job
side-step as a disappointment, but recognize working through that
disappointment as strengthening once the desired opportunity comes along.
For those entering college our weakened economy often evokes
questions as to whether the rising costs of a college education -
especially at elite private colleges - can be justified. Such questions,
coupled with diminished job prospects for today's college graduates,
could be prelude to questioning the basic value of a college education. A
college education should be viewed as more than an investment in an
employment opportunity. It is an investment in intellectual growth and
self-discovery.
Now that my high school seniors are
moving into college, I am eager to see you study widely, establish your
goals and select the major concentrations that will prepare you to reach
those goals. I want you to see the glass as half full as you delve into
your college education and reach for a meaningful future with cautious
optimism. My wish for you is to dare to dream, and in the words of
Langston Hughes,
"Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken winged bird
That cannot fly
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow"
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