Post #1 Precis "Learning as Freedom"

In “Learning as Freedom”—an editorial published on September 5, 2012 in The New York Times—Michael Roth argues that rather than structuring education around specific vocations, “making the grade,” and turning people into “robots” designed to complete certain tasks, education should allow individuals to be free to grow and learn while gaining necessary skills and finding their purpose and significance in life and work. Roth refers to the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 where specific vocational education was funded in order to fill job opportunities. And though it was successful in its way, it lacked the opportunity for personal growth. The idea that the purpose of education should be exclusively for jobs and careers leaves small possibility for those who may have interest elsewhere. Also, it disregards the importance of the social and personal aspects of life. Being that those areas are also part of the whole person, they need to be developed and a university setting and education is the perfect place to gain the confidence and experience that will ultimately be part of the professional self. Regardless of difficulties that may defer a university education, it should not devaluate the autonomy and identity that is gained through such an opportunity, which is altogether the freedom for which our country stands for.