Reading Response 4

One quote from this reading that jumped out to me was Grubb’s and Lazerson’s definition of education gospel which was that “our faith in education as moral, personally edifying, collectively beneficial, and a worthwhile investment no matter the cost, either individual or societal ” (10). I wanted to argue or pose the question of whether or not this is truly obtainable or is it impossible to achieve all the aspects of this education definition? Thinking of education as strictly a positive without downsides may be wishful thinking. For example, there are certain things that must be given up in order to attend high education such as time, energy, money, stress, etc. These things can affect every student completely differently, so the idea of it being a “worthwhile investment” no matter what is tough to argue. There are unintended consequences with every decision that gets made, and many of these consequences can hurt the student and those around them. There are certainly situations where not attending higher education can lead to benefits greater than attending a school overall. I think it comes down to each individual’s personal situation/story. Of course higher education is something that can be used to advance society and individual growth, but the amount of factors that go into that decision is alot to consider.