Stephen Beal - What Is the Value of a College Degree?

Despite the recent attacks on higher education, I remain a passionate advocate for the comprehensive, innovative educational model that our college espouses. In fact, I believe that this is the perfect time for creative, committed students to attend art and design school. There have never been more career opportunities for creative people, and the value of a college degree has never been greater.

One thing that I would add to Stephen’s article above that is often overlooked in talking about arts education (or most other “types” of educations) is the material is not the end goal, but a means to faciliate and train thinking. Few people educated in the US can recite the Presidents of the United States or name all fifty states after high school (let alone what countries that make up Africa), but that is not the point.

The point is that in good education systems it is a means to foster and develop student thinking so that students can use those thinking skills long after the basic facts have faded into the past.