Going into the public issues forum, I was rather nervous because it seemed so “official” and although I have deliberated in class in the same style, the in-class deliberation was so informal. When I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not that formal and conversation flowed quite freely.
After being split into three groups, each group went off to a separate space to deliberate the three approaches. I feel like my group’s deliberation was really productive. We covered so many topics in such a short time, fluidly transitioning from one talking point to another. Although we started off with Option 1, we quickly ended up touching upon the other options in our consideration of the facets of Option 1. Option 1 consisted of focusing on staying competitive in the global economy.
We all came to the conclusion that a holistic education featuring a variety of disciplines is very important for quality. This included classes that educate students on better citizenship, which goes into the second option, which is repairing an ailing society. Since this consensus includes a holistic education for everyone, we began discussing options providing access to such education, especially since tuition is so expensive nowadays.
At some point, we went on a tangent about the legitimacy of standardized testing in secondary education, and weighed the options on how to assess students for college preparedness. After the moderator brought us back to topic, we continued our discussion in terms of higher education. We spent a lot of time debating on the value of college.
One interesting perspective was brought up by a guy named Eli who had his own tech company since high school. He is in college now, but is seriously torn between his parents’ wishes to stay in school and his industry mentors’ cries to quit school and focus on his business. I’m glad to hear his viewpoint because it is so unique and rare to find someone who is pushing against the common mold, especially in an environment of Scholars and PLA members where the thought of dropping out of college would be abhorrent and nonexistent.
We somehow got out of that and moved on to Option 2. The moderator did a great job in terms of sitting back and letting the conversation flow, but sometimes, I feel like we really got off-topic to a certain degree. We never really discussed some of the points that were on the packet with all of the options.
We did not talk much about STEM fields or the promotion of it, but touched on it at some point. I think that’s because we all agreed that while they are important, they should not be promoted as the only things to learn. I feel like that was actually quite detracting from true deliberation because not all viewpoints were really represented. Of course, the goal is to reach an agreement, but I like thinking of deliberation as a learning process, almost an exercise, which is why reaching an agreement is not that important to me, at least not for the most part.
However, this deliberation had a purpose to it, so reaching agreements were high on the priority list. There was another nontraditional student in the group who attended culinary school and then ended up going to Penn State to get a “traditional” education, so to speak. He talked about how he really believes in the value of a liberal arts education, which is why he decided to go back to school and start over at college.
With that said, we did agree on that college is not for everyone, even though that is the societal path that American kids are “supposed to” follow. For most, dropping out of college or not going to college is inconceivable. Some people would be better off in a trade school or not going to college at all because the whole experience might not suit their needs and/or wants. The institution and the societal norm of going to college, as seen in Eli’s case, could be restrictive. In other cases, students are underprepared for the rigor collegiate learning and/or the independence of college.
I really enjoyed this event and hope that State College found it useful. One of the highlights of my evening was this elderly lady who gave the greatest one-liner of the night. During our discussion about the purpose of college and what students come to college to learn, she burst out saying, “They come to learn how to party!”
