1 week Ago
Want to stay current with Arthur's writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. I wish you were here, dear, I wish you were here. I wish I knew no astronomy when stars appear Yes! I thought, as I read these lines from the Russian American poet Joseph Brodsky in a 1989 love poem, "A Song.
" There's something about the ineffable beauty of life that formal knowledge misses. So it seemed to the 25-year-old me, a bohemian musician and hopeless romantic. True, this anti-intellectual view was also flavored by no small quantity of sour grapes, after I'd spent an unsuccessful eight months at college and was barely making rent.
I didn't know it at the time, but I was in for a great deal of book-learning in my 30s, which ultimately led to a life as an academic. Although I became a happiness researcher, not an astronomer, I eventually came to repudiate my dalliance with Brodsky's contention. Still, given what I now do for work, I have to ask: How exactly does higher education affect happiness? Not because college costs a family, on average, nearly $40,000 a year (per student), which gives rise to a legitimate debate about whether people are getting their money's worth; but because one of the most important questions they should weigh is "Will well-being be better or worse with this investment of time and money in additional schooling?" The answer to whether education pays a happiness dividend is not easy or clear-cut, but I can suggest a few rules to guide a potential student's decision about whether to pursue further studies.
Dwayne Betts: Joseph Brodsky on a Thursday morning At first glance, the relationship between education and happiness appears very positive. Many scholars have looked at life satisfaction in countries all over the world, and found that educational attainment seems to push it up, in general, for both individuals and countries. Most studies ascribe this effect to the fact that formal education improves labor-market outcomes,.
.. Arthur C.
Brooks.
