The Value of College

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/24/opinion/the-value-of-college.html

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To the Editor:

“A Broken Bargain With College Graduates” (editorial, May 22) uses President Obama’s commencement address at Rutgers as an opportunity to address America’s challenging job market.

For years our government leaders have spoken about higher education almost exclusively in terms of economic impact and jobs. President Obama’s effort to highlight the civic virtues imbued by education, virtues that are in painfully short supply, is a refreshing exception.

While not forgetting the real importance of careers, can’t we for a moment simply embrace the observation that “in politics and in life ignorance is not a virtue”? And the vital though noneconomic rewards of higher education that the observation implies?

NEIL WEISSMAN

Provost, Dickinson College

Carlisle, Pa.