Jackson Free Press

As we move into the fourth or fifth year of the Great Recession (depending on whose measurement you use), it's more and more difficult to divorce anything from its ability to make money and create jobs. Education isn't exempt. Parents and students want to know that schooling will help on the path toward good, stable work and a decent salary, one that will at least allow grads to eat while paying back those exorbitant student loans.

Measured in economic terms, the purpose of education is to fill the work-force pipeline. With any luck, you and your kids will pick the right specialization to make it in the "real world," whether it's business, technology or Japanese.

That's the problem with looking at education from an economic-only viewpoint: Unless you're psychic, choosing the "right" specialty can be a lot like spinning the roulette wheel. Few could foresee the explosion of technology 30 years ago. Twenty years from now, or maybe 10, today's skills will be obsolete.

Some specialties, like medicine, will always be useful. Pundits once said the same thing about law. Until recently, a law degree, especially one from a top school, guaranteed a successful, moneyed future. These days, job-placement counselors are encouraging law-school graduates to lower their expectations. Like nearly every other industry, the law has more applicants than positions.

Not so long ago, education was a privilege, not a right. Thank God those days are over, right? Truthfully, it hasn't taken long to bend even something as seemingly benign and beneficial as education into fodder for commerce.

Ask Gov. Haley Barbour in whose interest it is to keep a quarter of Mississippians impoverished and ignorant. Such a savvy, business-oriented leader would move the dial on prosperity, health, and education if those were necessities for car manufacturers, port operators or strip mines. But they're not.

When education is a commodity, leaders will funnel students into whatever most benefits the narrow interests of the marketplace. Prison-industry analysts look at how Mississippi's third-graders are doing to predict how much capacity they'll need in 10 years. Pre-K education and a prosperous, egalitarian society is not in that multi-billion dollar industry's best interest.

To lift all Mississippians, we need school programs that emphasize soft skills—organization, socialization and cooperation—at all grade levels. Instill confidence, love of learning, and striving for excellence by challenging kids with music, art, languages, philosophy and logic. Not every youngster will bite at the apple, but 20 years from now, people with complete (dare we say liberal) educations and flexibility will be ready to take on the challenges we can't even name today. Lawyers may need remedial retraining.

Instead of rushing to produce more workers, let's shift education toward producing well-rounded, thinking adults. And let's begin now with 3-year-olds.