Digging In

In his book, Becoming Native to this Place, Wes Jackson writes, “The universities now offer only one serious major: upward mobility. Little attention is paid to educating the young to return home, or to go to some other place, and dig in. There is no such thing as a ‘homecoming’ major. But what if the universities were to ask seriously what it would mean to have as our national goal becoming native in this place, this continent?”

I have been thinking about education recently. First, in four years we will be helping our son make decisions about his educational future after high school and I would like to have a better opinion than simply, “you need to get an education son.” Second, my own education weighs heavily on me and has for some years now. I am disappointed with the advice I received from people I trusted. Looking back, family, guidance counselors, and advisors seem to have been pushing me further down the industrialized educational conveyor that promises a pot of gold when the product that you will become is completed.
Recently I heard someone say that the best and brightest students in the eighties and nineties pursued jobs in finance. Not everyone chose this route but it is obvious that there were more people trying to get rich than riches available. The generations of Americans before at least had a better balance of bright people choosing jobs that provided more than personal wealth. Jackson writes about the excesses of post Depression and war economics leading to a regression in the maturity of our country, but that is another post for another time. It looks as though more of the current generation of young people are choosing professions that add to the well-being of their communities. I believe universities, especially Christian universities have a great opportunity to direct these people to a place to dig in, preferably their homes. Although I am not convinced that these changes have to come from universities, and definitely not from the government, it would be nice to see young people trained for something more than upward mobility.

Finally, Jackson writes, ”We are unlikely to achieve anything close to sustainability in any area unless we work for the broader goal of becoming native to our places in a coherent community that is in turn embedded in the ecological realities of its surrounding landscape.”