Higher Ed and a Higher Call

There has been quite a bit of news recently about parents who have been so compromised in the area of personal integrity that they have been willing to bend the rules, to cheat, in order that their children may get into a better college. God calls us to a high standard of integrity, as we read in Psalm 26:
9 Do not gather my soul with sinners, Nor my life with bloodthirsty men,
10 In whose hands is a sinister scheme, And whose right hand is full of bribes.
11 But as for me, I will walk in my integrity; Redeem me and be merciful to me.
12 My foot stands in an even place; In the congregations I will bless the Lord.

The Psalmist is asking to be insulated from people who will tempt him in matters of personal character.  And, he declares that amidst those temptations, he will continue to walk in integrity: possessing a sense of truthfulness in one's dealings, and not saying one thing and doing the other.  People of integrity are trustworthy and have made it their goal to not be compromised by evil.  God's people should exemplify a sense of doing things the right way, knowing that honors Him.

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The book of Proverbs deals with such concepts as the processing of information, the application of understanding to that information, and the infusion of Biblical wisdom, relying on the Spirit of God and Word of God to help it all make sense in the context of God's principles. Proverbs 4 states:
5 Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you.
7 Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom.

Well, what is the price of higher education?  For a number of unscrupulous parents, it is quite a bit more than the sticker price.  According to a recent Breakpoint commentary by John Stonestreet, "Parents paid up to $75,000 for someone to take the ACT or SAT for their kids, or in some cases, to bribe test administrators to correct answers after tests were taken."

The commentary continued:

And what if, in the hyper-competitive world of elite college admissions, acing standardized tests wasn’t enough? Well, colleges often hold spots open for athletes in certain sports, and for the right price, that very same Edge College & Career Network offered a different service of “bribing college coaches and administrators into designating (your) children as recruited athletes,” even if they never played the sport.

Writing for The Stream, Alex Chadiak states:

Highly respected and accomplished coaches were bribed. Folks whose jobs it is to ensure the integrity of the SAT were rigging the system to line their pockets. At least one senior athletic department administrator has been fired (USC). Where does it end? And why is anyone willing to pay $1.2 million dollars to say their kid is a star soccer recruit at Yale?

I guess my biggest question is...why?  Chadiak writes:

There’s the allure of prestige. Of excellence by association. On the part of students and parents in general — across the board, not just among the elite — there’s a greater desire for a credential than for the education the credential is intended to signify. If it’s about the diploma rather than the learning, why not get the supposedly best diploma money can buy?

Chadiak refers to "a study by economists Alan Krueger and Stacy Dale," in which, "They found that students who achieved test scores and grades high enough to get into an elite university, but who choose a lesser ranked school, did just as well as their peers who attended the elite university."

So, he surmises:

It’s the students — not the schools — that makes the difference. Sure, if Yale is full of talented, ambitious students, we’d expect them to do well in life. But their outcomes would have been equally positive had they done their undergraduates elsewhere.

Stonestreet takes on the premise or purpose of higher education.  He writes:

Today, “getting on” is the only reason many universities exist. We tell students to go to college so they can get a job, so they can make money, so they can buy stuff, so they can retire, so they can die. There’s no ultimate “why” involved.

He contends, "it’s been a long time since many of the courses or degrees that students pay so much for can deliver on the investment, especially given the university’s captivity to progressive ideals and a dismissal of any real debate. Often, students graduate today un-hire-able." He also mentions...

...what’s missing is a bigger vision of why we learn, why we stretch our minds, why we explore the unknown, and why we sharpen our skills. That’s what happens when the goal is to get a credential, not become a better person.

Stonestreet touts the opportunity that Christian higher education has to "offer a meaningful alternative," grounded in a Biblical worldview perspective; he writes: "Christianity’s robust vision of what it means to be human, grounded in the idea of our being made in the image of God, has been the most powerful force in history driving the educational impulse and educational innovation."

So, I would say a principal point to consider would be that we have to recognize the value of education; there should be a means to the end.  Ultimately, we should develop character and life skills consistent with the idea of being a lifelong learner.  From a Biblical perspective, we should seek to take information, infuse it with Biblical truth, and grow in our life's calling.

But, apparently there have become so many other factors involved surrounding education, and it's driven people to sacrifice their integrity.  As Chadiak writes, "Cheaters often get caught. Let’s hope this proves to be a deterrent."  The Bible teaches us to be people of integrity, who center their lives on honesty and character development.   We have to be grounded in the truth that nothing is so important for parents or their children that is worth sacrificing their integrity for.  

Chadiak also hammers the character point: "Where you go to college is not nearly as important as what you do when you’re there, and thereafter. If the best thing you can say about yourself is that you got into Yale, you have a sad life."

He concludes by saying, "So work hard, play by the rules, and trust God. Stanford or Samford, it’ll work out just fine."   And, we can be reminded of Stonestreet's phrase: the "ultimate 'why.'"