A Response to Shelby Lee Porter's Response

In reading Shelby’s essay which has an opinion that for the most part is in contrast to my own. I learned a few things about how colleges would teach the big questions that could be perceived as bad things in the wrong light. With the wrong tint to them, these things could seem unnecessary or downright detrimental to the students, but as I see it these things are either helpful or absolutely necessary to the betterment of student education.
One point that Shelby made was that student’s don’t need to be taught the “big questions” because they have already learned most of the answers in everyday life. This is not true in all honesty there are an unlimited number of questions that can be important to each individual’s life. Shelby, do you know what you would do if the American economy collapsed? Do you know what will make you happy in life? If you do, great, but there are many questions that you will come upon in life that you have not yet probed and colleges could help you to do that.
Many students will teach themselves the answers to many questions on their own and that is something that will always be true but what a college can and should do is show their students the questions that many people come across in their lives. Some student’s may already know the answers to the questions that a school would ask and that is inevitable but they still have other inquiries that can plague their minds.
That brings a possible solution to this problem. Why not have a list of the questions, a student can and should run across in their lives, and if a student believes that they do not need to explore a question any further they can move on to another one. Some students will skip entire questions but then they would be able to answer more relevant ones to themselves. The teachers could then either help the students individually or group them by question so that they can discuss among themselves and with a teacher. This solution does rely on the student’s willingness to learn, but isn’t that something that colleges should also teach, the ability for the student to learn by their own free will?
Another point that Shelby makes is that colleges cannot give their students answers to the questions, the answers must be achieved. This is a point that is absolutely correct; colleges must not just tell the student what the answer to the question is that is something that no one can answer but themselves. But is it not possible to achieve these answers in college? Teachers in the ideal system would never just give the student’s an answer they would help them in finding their own answers. In a sense teachers would not give the answers they would, not to sound like Peter Frampton, they would show you the way. Every day. Students do not have multiple paths to each question, as Shelby stated. There are infinite paths for each student, which is why the teaching of these questions would be such a hard thing to do, because the rate at which each individual question would be taught would be different for everyone and most often require individual help.
A problem with colleges right now that is not inherently their fault is that the big theme right now is to make more money. This creates the cycle of the college trying to attract the students by showing them how to make more money. The most effective way to show a student this is to focus on it so that is what schools have been doing recently. This is the cycle I described in my previous essay.
Colleges though for the most part seem to be lessening the focus on making money. They seem to be going back to the more undefined things in life. Such as these questions that can help us all when answered. I believe the “Big Questions” to be a symbol for everything a college can teach its students that they would not learn on their own. That is what colleges should do; teach their student’s everything they do not know that will help provide for the betterment of their lives.