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Education, and I regret to say this as an educator, but there's no indication that education has a direct effect on happiness.

From Derek Bok

Economists who have studied the relationship between education and economic growth confirm what common sense suggests: The number of college degrees is not nearly as important as how well students develop cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving ability.

From Derek Bok

For some students, especially in the sciences, the knowledge gained in college may be directly relevant to graduate study. For almost all students, a liberal arts education works in subtle ways to create a web of knowledge that will illumine problems and enlighten judgment on innumerable occasions in later life.

From Derek Bok

I suspect that no community will become humane and caring by restricting what its members can say.

From Derek Bok

The most obvious purpose of college education is to help students acquire information and knowledge by acquainting them with facts, theories, generalizations, principles, and the like. This purpose scarcely requires justification.

From Derek Bok

There's a great deal of difference between thinking reflectively about moral issues and achieving higher standards of ethical behavior.

From Derek Bok

Although professors regard improving critical thinking as the most important goal of college, tests reveal that seniors who began their studies with average critical thinking skills have progressed only from the 50th percentile of entering freshmen to about the 69th percentile.

From Derek Bok

There is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot.

From Derek Bok

Again and again, universities have put a low priority on the very programs and initiatives that are needed most to increase productivity and competitiveness, improve the quality of government, and overcome the problems of illiteracy, miseducation, and unemployment.

From Derek Bok

Efforts to develop critical thinking falter in practice because too many professors still lecture to passive audiences instead of challenging students to apply what they have learned to new questions.

From Derek Bok

Derek Bok

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