Higher learning or higher nothing

“When I was 14, my hero was a rapper named KRS-One who dropped out of eighth grade and educated himself by reading and apprenticing in the music business. I informed my parents that I intended to do the same, and they told me it was illegal.” William Upski Wimsatt writes in his article, “How I got my D.I.Y degree.”

Many days, I too feel like I should just quit school and do something else. As I get closer to completion of my degree, I find myself riddled with doubt. Does what I am studying matter? Is my degree marketable? Will it be enough to sustain me economically? Did I choose the right major? Am I ready for the world? Do I even want to be in university?

Some days I walk into campus and feel purposed and in full control of my path. Other days, the familiar classes and routine plunges me into profound anguish. I find myself confronted with a form of knowledge that offers no landmarks, nothing specific to hold on to. To borrow from William Wimsatt’s article again;  

“I realized that there were no courses covering the things I most wanted to learn. No sex classes. No friendship classes. No classes on how to build an organization, raise money, navigate a bureaucracy, create a database, buy a house, love a child, spot a scam, ask the right questions, talk someone out of suicide, or figure out what's Important. Those are the things that enhance or mess up people's lives, not whether they know economic theory or can analyze literature.”

When anyone joins USIU, they have to sit for placement exams on a few basic topics Math, English and computer literacy. I heard a joke once.  The joke goes that a graduating class was made to sit for the same placement exams they had taken a few years back on joining the institution. Most of them apparently scored way less than they had initially. This story tends to imply that the graduating students left less smart than they had arrived. My fear however, is not this. My fear is that all the knowledge I acquire here, might not be very useful in my life. After all, is it not said that learning happens naturally and school mostly just gets in the way?

In between these fears, walks of despair and thoughts that the idea of university was oversold to me, I talk to people; school mates and others. Most seem to have a general idea of the greater outcome. Yet others, and a good number I might add, like me, do not. The idea that a college degree might not be as important is becoming fashionable. The returns of a college education appear too uncertain.

Steve Jobs one of the most iconic people of our times, dropped out of Reed College.  “After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

Closer home, I visit some friends who have opened a music studio recently. The studio is located in the plush Karen area of Nairobi. Down the road from the studio, you can see the newly constructed vice president’s residence. It is a nice address to say the least. Kioko Mutiso, one of its owners, was once a student at USIU. In 2006, he did one semester and decided to quit in favor of entrepreneurship. Judging by his address and the Mercedes Benz E240 he arrived in that did not go very badly for him.

Later that day, I sit down with Charles, Steve and Audrey, all students at USIU, for lunch. Ironically, in the same hall, USIU career fair participants are doing the same. 

Charles is dreadlocked and from Mombasa. On a good day, you will spot him wearing Turkish shoes and taking pictures of this and that on his Canon 550D. On a bad day, you will find him using his blackberry in class. Charles was originally an I.T major but changed to broadcast journalism. He has two semesters to go and doesn’t necessarily think his degree will be of help. He feels his major, broadcast, focuses more on video than photography, which is his main interest. He intends to go to Turkey for his masters. “I don’t know which masters…and it doesn’t matter, in my family everyone is a PhD. It’s not a choice, it’s a duty” 

Some girls get beauty and no brains, Audrey is not one of them. Audrey, public relations major, believes her degree will be of a lot of help in her career. Like Charles, she credits USIU for her passion in photography. “I wanted to do Integral studies and psychology but am still thinking about it.” She plans to do another degree after graduation. My parents want me to do International Relations but I want psychology…I’ll probably end up with psychology.”  She confesses that she avoids thinking about her future after graduation but she hopes she does not have to work for anyone. She thinks about it for a while then says that she will perhaps master in Literature…she thinks about it some more.

It does not take long after you have met Steve to know that he is into computers. He is short and somewhat plump; the kind plump that comes with long seating hours. His facebook says “Proud to be a graphic designer”. More often than not, he has Nokia wireless headphones hanging around his neck. His eyes light up when he talks about something that excites him. They do when he explains to me, quite unsuccessfully, the workings of Photo Shop 6. Steve has a passion for multimedia and intends to start his own advertising company once out of university. His major, however, is International Business Administration. He says he needs it to manage his business when he finally gets to it. Steve is in no hurry to graduate. He says the university provides him with much needed networking for his new business and he doesn’t feel he is quite ready to step into the professional world.

 “Things are thick out there” Steve concludes and everybody at the table agrees and gets back to their lunch. The conversation swiftly shifts to a photography client they all find tiresome. 

Surprisingly, all three agree that the biggest gain they’ve gotten from college has been in the social front. It gets me thinking about a story I had read about James Altucher, a New York–based venture capitalist and finance writer, he says,  “People come back to me, very smart, intelligent people, and say, ‘Look, college teaches you how to think, college teaches you how to network, college teaches you how to write.’ Personally, I didn’t learn how to do any of those things in college.”  What Altucher learned to do in college, he says, is what all young men—“with almost no exceptions”—learn to do: drink and talk to women.

One morning in between class I have a chat with Professor Ngure wa Mwachofi. Professor Mwachofi is 60 years old but does not look it. He is fit, clean shaven and plays guitar. He is a yoga instructor. He is the kind of man who knows a thing or two about education. He has taught and lectured around the world for over three decades.  

Ours is a casual discussion outside the video editing labs at the USIU ICT center. We lean on the metal stair railing and all around us in the different labs are students buried deep in computer screens. I wonder how many of them are swimming in the same confusing murky waters as me. Every few minutes, the discussion is interrupted by students asking this and that.

“A degree is like a driving license”  The professor tells me adjusting his baseball cap “you learn most of your driving after you’ve got it and therefore a degree is like a license to learn some more. ”  Our systems are partly to blame for the confusion among university students he adds. There is not enough career counseling and young people are not encouraged to explore. “At the same time, people are different,” he explains, “some people even at the age of 60, will not have made up their minds on what they want to do.”

The trick, he explains, is to not judge what you are learning as right or wrong but to enjoy it instead and diversify your thinking. “Assuming half way you figure what you are doing is not necessarily what you wanted, it is not a crisis. As long as you have built confidence and have a clear understanding of yourself, you can still move on. Consider the 1^st degree only as a starting point.” 

Regardless of our fears, anxiety or even excitement to graduate, at the end of it all when you and I get that degree, it is my hope that our overall education will have done at least the following: nurtured critical thought; exposed us individuals to the magnificent accomplishments of humankind; opened our minds on ways to farther these accomplishments; developed in us an ability not just to listen intently but to respond intelligently.

For all these as one author says, are habits of mind that are useful for an engaged citizenry, and from which a letter carrier, no less than a college professor, might derive a sense of self-worth.

 And so I put all these together, cross my fingers, walk into class and hope that  I am making the right decision.