Debunking College Myths: College creates well-rounded human beings

Wrong. Universities don’t create well-rounded people and were never created for that purpose.

Prior to the mid-19th century, the only people who went to college were the children of the upper class.

And back then, the #1 goal of members of the upper echelon of American society was religious and civic leadership.

Sure, they might have had jobs as attorneys, bankers, and shipping merchants, but that was just to pay the biilllzz (as the kids say these days). 

Their aspirations? The way they thought of themselves and presented themselves to society? The positions they sought and trained for?

leaders of their churches, towns, colonies, states, and country

So, when their children went off to college, the goal was NOT to create a well-rounded person just for the sake of creating a well-rounded person. 

Universities were there to prepare those children for the NEXT STEP in their lives . . . religious and civic leadership.

So, during THIS time, courses in philosophy, economics, political science, and many other liberal arts topics were PRAGMATIC! 

These college students NEEDED to understand a broad array of perspectives in a variety of disciplines in order to be adequately prepared for their CAREERS . . . in religious and civic leadership. 

liberal arts were the JOB SKILLS for the elites of the 1600s - 1800s

Fast forward to the Second Industrial Revolution.

The upper class's aspirational path shifted from religious and civic leadership to business and technology

But colleges didn’t follow suit.

Thus, what began as pragmatic education morphed into an increasingly abstract set of courses ill-suited for the real world.

So, yeah, when people tell you that the purpose of college is to create well-rounded citizens of the world, you can tell them to go *$#! themselves.

Okay, well don’t tell them THAT. But you CAN tell them that they’re incorrect.

That this belief is a myth perpetuated by colleges because, the truth is . . .

universities have no idea why they teach an impractical, esoteric curriculum

So, they just blurted out an answer that seemed like it should be right . . . and it stuck . . . for 150 years.