Intellectual pursuits and practicality

Stock's article addressed a particular grievance in higher education that few link to benefiting society. She mentions the fusion of intellectual pursuit -- studying something for the sake of learning it -- and applying the knowledge practically in society for the greater good. Land grant colleges, particularly MSU, seek to strike a balance between the two to nurture curiosity and obtain fulfillment while benefiting society with an acquired skill set.

I have no true, concrete point on this subject, only that I find it impossible to ever execute this balance to any precise degree. At any college, you have the more "abstract" majors, such as philosophy and history, in which you won't have exact skills, per se, to exercise, but rather theories and concepts to, uh, ponder over. And it's impossible to define practicality in any social sense because people see what's useful and what's not entirely differently, particularly government officials, educators, and scientists. The professional writing program has allowed me to develop a greater number of tangible skills than anything, save for maybe The State News, but both have benefited the other. Operating under the assumption that one may suitably define intellectual pursuit and practical skill, I believe college should be for developing skills -- whether that's critical thinking, problem solving, Photoshopping, molecular splitting, etc. -- and intellectual pursuits should be limited to one's own time. But, like I said, who makes those definitions and, is this person(s) qualified to make them?

Kto znaet.